Babylon 5 vs Star Wars
by Khartoum
Summary: Imperial forces discover a wormhole leading to Babylon 5 and decide to conquer, but Babylon 5 has a hidden advantage
1. Arrival

The tear in space was invisible to the naked eye, but the gravity waves it emitted caused the stars behind it to twinkle gently, causing patterns to appear if one looked long enough. In some places, one could see monsters of old, or heroes battling them. It was a sight that could be enjoyed by a fantasy reader, or dreamed of by a poet.  
  
But Imperial Officers on board the Star destroyer Agatrix had no time for minor details of the tear. They had their jobs to do, and they dedicated their effort and thought to that end. For those who had time to think, they wondered why they had been ordered out here. They had been two hours away from cleaning out a rebel hiding place, when the priority orders had come in, not from their sector headquarters, but from Coruscant itself. And not just any location on Coruscant, but the Emperor's Palace itself.  
  
Their orders had changed, from one of pursuing the remaining pockets of rebels, to one of get to this location, and make sure only Imperial vessels were within one light-minute of the anomaly. As soon as they had arrived, they had launched fighters, and even now the pilots were swinging around, watching the various parts of space nearby.  
  
A brief flicker of motion, then a second and a third, and three more Imperial vessels arrived. Their captains reported to Captain Velholm of the Agatrix, and he accepted their assignment to him. Captain Morgern of the Star Destroyer Eager Fire was expected, as she had been near, but Captains Jones of the Modular Cruiser Verentor and Geryax of the World Devastator Hunger were a surprise. Even more surprising was that the Modular Cruiser was in a Survey configuration. The only possible reason for that was if they were planning to go to a new world, and survey it for possible colonization.  
  
A World Devastator though, that was where the real confusion came from. World Devastators worked by using a massive tractor beam and nuclear furnace to suck up the surface of a planet, and convert the material obtained into new Imperial war machines. As such, it had been programmed with all the plans for current Imperial weapons, and the vessels that mounted them. Since the resurgence of the Empire, the need and desire for mobile construction facilities had forced the World Devastators into a more civilian role, in which they would suck up their materials, and build civilian components out of them. Those components ranged from prefabricated towns, to advanced mining equipment, to everything in between.  
  
But what would they need a mobile factory out here for? There were no stars within a couple light-years, and its industrial potential would be wasted just sitting here. Although less than a drop in the bucket for a proper system's capability, a World Devastator was a small city in terms of industrial production.  
  
He supposed he would be finding out soon enough. In the meantime, the Eager Fire and the Verentor launched their fighters to assist in securing the area, allowing the Agatrix a chance to recover and refuel its fighters, and allowing the pilots a chance to refresh themselves. They grabbed a few snacks, stretched a little, and jogged in place, before it was time to launch again. The Hunger had no fighters of its own, so it was assigned to watch over the space near the tear using its own sensors.  
  
*  
  
A couple hours later, a message came through. All Captains were to assemble in the briefing room of the Agatrix, and stand by for a conference meeting. A secure link would be set up from Coruscant, and all four Captains would be ready to communicate when the Grand Admiral arrived.  
  
Three shuttle trips later, and the Captains were gathered in the Agatrix's briefing room. A brief bit of refreshments were out for their consumption, and a current update of their local space was ready. As ranking Captain, Velholm was at the head of the table, with Captains Jones, Morgern, and Garyax on either side of him. At the other end of the table, a place was left open for the hologram to occupy.  
  
At exactly the time specified in the message, the hologram sprang into form, and a brief stutter occurred as the Agatrix's computers meshed with the Coruscant computers to make sure the signal was properly encrypted and decrypted at the same rate. If either went off the encryption rate, communications would be lost.  
  
"Captain, I am Grand Moff Xathan. Your vessels were ordered to the tear in space because when a smaller probe ship had observed it, the tear appeared to be a fairly stable wormhole that led to a totally different galaxy."  
  
Gasps of shock ran around the room, and several eyes widened. Ever since the Empire had come back into power after helping defeat the Yuuzhang Vong, the danger inherent in new contacts could never be understated. The New Republic had tried its best to contain the Yuuzhang Vong menace, but had ultimately failed. It had been up to the Empire to perform hit and run raids on them, weakening their support structure, destroying their infrastructure, and ultimately leaving the Yuuzhang Vong forces stranded in the galaxy. With the benefit from the various technologies gathered, the old empire had resurged with a vengeance. With no central leader though, there had almost been another power struggle.  
  
But one person had stepped into the breach. Young Anakin Solo, son of Princess Leia and Han Solo, with the noble blood of Vader flowing through his veins, had gone to meet the Imperial warlords. He had quickly brought them to pledge their allegiance to him, and he had returned with them under his authority. He had returned to the New Republic Council chambers, and given the Senators there the new terms of government. First, the office of Chancellor would no longer be the supreme power in the galaxy. The position of Emperor would be re-established, with himself as the new Emperor. The Senate would be kept, but as an advisory body, not as a total governing body.  
  
For justice, he had searched as well, and found hundreds of potential Jedi. Some of them had preferred aggression, and combat tactics, and he had taught those the ways of the Sith, how to fight and never be overcome. Others were philosophers, and he provided material to help them learn the Jedi ways, those of healing and diplomacy. Together, his new Force groups allowed him to ferret out anyone who tried to rebel against him. By working together, the Sith were able to keep up long-term attacks, while the Jedi healed those who were injured. The combination of deadly fighters and caring healers allowed him to tailor his strike missions depending on the opponent. After the Galaxy was back under centralized control, the Jedi and Sith went back to the original Jedi headquarters, and began to set up their training programs. The new goal was to set up a unified training program, producing Force warriors who were deadly in the arts of combat, while able to deal with others diplomatically if needed. The best warriors of the new program were being hired directly by the Emperor, and were being referred to as his Hands.  
  
The Captains came out of their shock, and heard the next bit of news from Coruscant with a bit of concern. "There is a Hand on her way now, and she will be assuming an advisory role during the first expedition to this new galaxy. Grand Admiral Veh'kor will be arriving in his Eclipse-class Battleship within three hours. When he arrives, he will assume overall command of the expedition. Within two days, we will have additional ships there as well. In the meantime, I want you to organize an expedition to the other side, and see what is there."  
  
With that, the communications channel was cut, and the Captains looked at each other, then at Captain Velholm. He sighed briefly, then said, "Commodore Jones," giving her the courtesy promotion, as there could only be one Captain on a ship, "I want you to launch your fighters and assault boats, then get some probe droids set up. Launch them through the wormhole, and give us a read on anything within five light years. Commodore Geryax, since your World Devastator has no inherent fighter support, I want you at an angle from the tear. If anything hostile comes through the tear that we cannot engage because of other ships, have your ship vacuum it up, and sift the materials for answers. The Agatrix and the Eager Fire will be facing the tear, with our fighter squadrons launched, ready to pounce on anything that pokes through. If anything comes through, we will proceed with a standard Imperial challenge, then use our weapons and fighters to disable it. I want prisoners, not casualties, but only if it will not put our ships or the security of the Empire at risk. If there is any doubt, err on the side of keeping your ships safe. Any questions?" There were none, and the other Captains returned to their ships, and began giving orders. Captain Velholm sent a message to Coruscant informing the Fleet Command of his orders, and decided to take a small nap.  
  
Within three hours, Grand Admiral Veh'kor had arrived, and reviewed Captain Velholm's plan. Approving it, the Grand Admiral changed the disposition of the forces slightly, enough so that his Eclipse Battleship could also engage anything that came through the tear. With the main superlaser of the Eclipse aligned with the tear, if too many ships started coming through, the superlaser would be fired, theoretically causing the tear to collapse, or at least incinerating everything within the tear. Three hours after that, the probe droids were readied, and Captain Velholm was awoken again by the notification. The probe droids were deployed in a single line leading towards the tear, and the fighters and bombers were performing steady loops to always have at least two squadrons able to attack from surprise if anything came through.  
  
Captain Velholm commed the Eclipse, and he informed the Grand Admiral he was ready to proceed. Receiving permission, he gave the order. "Captain Jones, send the probe droids through."  
  
Slowly each probe droid activated its engine, and then shot through the tear. There were ten probe droids in the first wave, and their entire job was to map any gravitational anomalies that might be present, and transmit them back to the mothership. The data slowly arrived back, and several people whistled. The tear was very unstable, and only two of the droids had survived the trip. But the unstable waves were very predictable, indicating that the tear still had a few months of life left in it. If Imperial simu-tunnel equipment could be brought to the site and a ring stabilizer built, it would be possible to stabilize the tear, and eventually expand it.  
  
The next wave of probe droids was deployed and launched, and with the new data, they all managed to get through to the other side, and began scanning. Two droids were assigned to stay at the other end of the tear, while the remaining eighteen were sent out to scan nearby space with their passive sensors, trying to see anyone before they were seen, while staying within scanning range of the tear so they would not become lost. But a problem soon became apparent.  
  
"Captain Jones," said a lieutenant, "the other side is different. It appears to be a 'red space' that seems to soak up emitted energy. All our probe droids are reporting only one tenth their normal range in scan capability. Also, there has been no sign of any planetary systems or stars detected. It seems to be empty of anything."  
  
Captain Jones paled at that news. It was bad enough to find a tear leading to a potentially hostile galaxy, but finding out that there wasn't anything else even there was a complete shock. But her training took over, and she quickly relayed the information to Captain Velholm and Grand Admiral Veh'kor.  
  
At a meeting a couple hours later, the Captain met with the Grand Admiral on board the Eclipse. They discussed the news there fairly calmly, as it was obvious that there was nothing to worry about through the tear, when suddenly Captain Jones jerked slightly. The others looked at her calmly, because they recognized when someone is being interrupted by their communicator, when they gave orders not to be disturbed.  
  
Grand Admiral Veh'kor looked at her calmly as he said, "Answer it."  
  
She spent a few moments calling up the communications, and her initially annoyed look was quickly replaced by an expression of pure astonishment. After putting down the communicator, she said, "Sir, I had not given orders to recall the probe droids from the other side, and it appears as if they have picked up a vessel. My ship is currently sending a view of the space on the other side, and the current data on the unknown."  
  
The Grand Admiral looked at an aide for a moment, conveying the message that he wanted that view immediately. The aide however, had been thinking just as quickly, and merely pressed a button, throwing up a hologram of the red space on the other side. There was a single point, representing the tear, a group of 20 dots representing the probe droids, and a single blinking point showing the unknown vessel. The data currently known about it was scrolling underneath the screen, and was at several angles to allow all the Captains and the Grand Admiral to read it. Several moments went by before one of the people chuckled.  
  
Captain Geryax looked around as she had realized everyone had heard her chuckle. "Grand Admiral, Captains, according to the information so far, the vessel appears to be using a primitive hydrogen fusion drive to accelerate itself. This appears to be a basic radar system, using radio waves to determine if anyone is out there. It is of a very low power, and our probe droid is not registering on it at all, given the stealth systems we use on them and its current power at this distance. If we can get a probe droid closer to it, I think I can give you better information on the composition of its hull, and the power level and efficiency of its reactor, not to mention various details of its inner workings."  
  
The Grand Admiral had something else to add, "You are ignoring the most important piece of information. This vessel came from somewhere, and is obviously heading somewhere. Since this red space does not have the material necessary to produce such a craft, it must have come from somewhere else. I agree though, we need to get a probe droid closer. Captain Jones, send out a droid to follow it. Give the droid the standard stealth investigation protocols, and let it follow. Let's see where it is heading. This red space could merely be a local phenomena, and normal space could be further out there."  
  
*  
  
The probe droid received it orders, and began accelerating towards the unknown. It steadily got closer, as the target was making no maneuvers, merely accelerating at a fixed velocity, plus or minus ten percent, and staying on a given course. The droid got closer and closer, and began to observe the vessel closer. It noticed the central body with the engine and power plant, and what appeared to be smaller modules attached to the sides. Getting closer, it noticed that the attachments were designed to be detached easily, and that the whole vessel had a very weak hull, compared to Imperial standards. There were windows in the sides of the vessel, and the droid got closer, to use the windows to determine the internal arrangement of the ship. While doing so, it also fired a small laser at the hull, trying to pick up on any internal communications by measuring vibrations.  
  
*  
  
Captain Brant was drunk again, as usual. While he always appeared clean and sober when talking to his boss, or people who wanted to ship goods aboard his ship, as soon as they were away, the bottles came out, and so did his harassing personality. Hearing the latest song drifting through the intercom, the assistant looked down and sighed. The crew on a cargo haul was herself, the Captain, and two engineers. Each person normally stood a twelve hour watch, with herself and the Captain standing their watches in the nose of the ship, making sure they were locked onto the beacon, and the engineers standing their watches in the fusion room, making sure the engine was kept running.  
  
When the Captain was on duty, he loved to get drunk, and serenade the entire crew. His songs were off-tone, off-color, and usually very disgusting or perverted. And those were the ones she could actually stand to listen to. The other songs could not even be described or tolerated. Even more fun, the Captain would turn on the intercom system all over the ship, and sing into it as loud as he could. With the whole ship echoing to him, it seemed like Hell on ears everywhere. Fortunately, she had bought a little item at Babylon 5 recently, and pulled it out. Putting the hearing muffs over her head, the sound of the Captain singing was mercifully tuned out, and with her alarm set to visual instead of audio, she would still get up on time. Before she went to sleep, she thought she saw a glint of metal out in hyperspace, but dismissed it as nothing. 'Sarah, you've got to learn how to relax,' she thought to herself, 'or find a way to get off this tub.'  
  
And the freighter cruised through hyperspace, not knowing what role it would play very soon.  
  
*  
  
The probe droid was now within a couple kilometers of the freighter. It had recorded the song, and had transmitted it back to the other droids to be relayed, and continued its approach. It was now leading a total of four droids in a chain, as the mothership had given instructions to extend the communications network in its direction. It kept creeping closer to the ship, and began to notice the smaller details now, such as areas where rust and corrosion had crept into areas of the hull, and the variations in the power plant. All the information so far pointed to a vessel that was not in good condition, but those conclusions were arrived at by others, and its original programming was still in effect, and it continued its cautious approach. Creeping to within one kilometer, the probe droid was using the windows to map the internal layout of the ship, and saw how the ship was arranged vertically from the engine. Obviously, the ship was designed to only use the main drive to achieve gravity, and had designed the interior of the ship around that up and down orientation. The net result was the nose of the ship felt like the top, while the engine room felt like the bottom.  
  
It kept recording internal arrangments, based on welds and rivets seen on the outside of the ship, when it received its new limitations. It was now authorized to actually achieve contact with the ship's hull, and perform active scans. Looking at the background radiation, the probe droid selected a frequency that came very close to matching the background radiation. The first scanner beam raced out, and connected with the freighter's hull.  
  
*  
  
Captain Brant sang another little song, then suddenly stopped as a blinking light got his attention. The light indicated that the main computer was having a hiccup, and was currently performing a self-test. Dismissing it as boring, the Captain began creating a new song, and singing it even louder than before.  
  
*  
  
The probe droid completed its initial scans, and began focusing on the cargo pods, as it had been ordered. Its scanners looked through them, identified the contents, and sent that data back as well. It suddenly received a new order. Since the crew of the Verentor had been unable to find any kind of inertial guidance system, they were guessing that the freighter was heading toward a beacon. Ordering the drone to start listening to anything in front of the freighter, the drone began searching. It took a couple minutes, but it found a tachyon beam being emitted, almost directly in the path of the freighter. Passing that information back as well, it continued to close and examine the freighter.  
  
It was now within one meter of the freighter, and it slowly began to extend its manipulator arms to attach itself to the freighter. It would use them to crawl around the freighter, looking into each window to get the final shape of the vessel's layout. Gently pulling itself from window to window, it would observe, then pull back to send the data.  
  
*  
  
Scott had finished adjusting the engine for now, and sighed back in relief. He didn't like the Captain's songs any more than the others, and he finally put his headphones back on, and looked over the engineering panel in front of him. Briefly, he wished that he and Sarah were on the same watch, as he had started to like her, and was planning to tell her that, someday. In the meantime, he turned up the volume on his video player, so the movie would drown out the Captain's singing. Unseen behind him though, the metal eye of the probe droid measured the room and looked at the panel, then crept back to transmit again.  
  
*  
  
The probe droid headed towards the nose of the ship, completing its scan on the interior. It was now heading for the large window at the front of the ship. None of the other windows had been able to give a good view on that section, and it crept along slowly.  
  
*  
  
Captain Brant finished his latest masterpiece, and sat back, relaxing. He spun around in the chair a couple times, enjoying the sensation, then started to walk back towards the rest of the ship and share his joy with them.  
  
*  
  
The probe droid gently eased itself around the edge, and began to watch. It pulled back at first as it detected a humanoid in the room. But the humanoid was headed towards the back of the room, and was facing away from the window. It moved up higher, trying to get a better view, using its arms to hold itself steady without using its repulsor system. It watched the humanoid move towards what seemed to be a ladder above a hatch, and the droid centered several sensors there, trying to see how the hatch was connected, and how the layout was arranged exactly for the interior passageway.  
  
*  
  
Captain Brant grabbed the rung, swung himself onto it, and turned around to toast the stars again.  
  
He saw the probe droid.  
  
*  
  
The probe droid watched him turn around suddenly and it knew that it had been seen. The sudden movements and erratic behavior were typical signs, and the probe droid knew that it had only one option in this situation.  
  
Self-destruct.  
  
*  
  
Captain Brant staggered against the wall of the passageway beyond, and screamed. He did not know what that thing was on the front of his ship, but it hung there, unblinking and reaching out with its arms to hold his ship. In his drunken state, he did not notice that it was barely half a meter wide, and the main body was only a half a meter tall. All he could see was a central body, an unblinking eye, and several arms reaching out and holding his ship.  
  
He screamed again as he climbed down the main passageway towards the crew quarters.  
  
*  
  
The probe initiated its self-destruct sequence, when it found that the self-destruct had been overridden! The people watching on the Verentor knew that getting out of the red space was more important, so they had put an override on the droid's self-destruct protocols. Stripped of its standard defense, the probe droid immediately ducked below the main window, and got into a position where its sensors could watch the main airlock for the ship as well. It also began mapping out escape patterns if someone came out after it. In the meantime, it would listen to how the crew reacted to one of their number reporting the probe droid's presence.  
  
*  
  
"Sarah!!!" Sarah jumped up as the lights in her room came to full brightness. She looked over and saw the Captain screaming at her and pointing towards the front of the ship. She reluctantly woke up fully from what had been a nice dream about just lying down on a beach somewhere and watching the ocean waves.  
  
Unfortunately, the first sight to greet her was a drunk Captain who was waving his hands like a maniac. Sighing, she pulled the headphones off her head, and began trying to listen to what he was saying.  
  
"There's a robot octopus on the front of the ship! It's covering the whole front and its pulling us in! It's gonna kill us all!"  
  
She sighed, and turned back over in her hammock. This was not what she needed. Unfortunately, the Captain would not be ignored, and he pulled her back out of her hammock. Normally he would have also taken the time to stare at her body, but he seemed too berserk even for that now. Sighing again, she slowly got dressed, hoping that by the time she was dressed the Captain would go off on another singing dirge, and she could get back to sleep.  
  
No such luck, as the Captain went over to the off-duty engineer and woke him up as well. Seeing as there was no way to shut him up, she reluctantly followed him as he led the two of them back towards the nose of the ship. She glanced at the engineer climbing along below her, and he looked even more sleepy than her.  
  
When they got back to the bridge, the Captain started gesturing madly. "It's there, staring into this ship, seeing if there is anything in here to eat. Go slowly, and maybe it won't see you."  
  
Peering around the hatch slowly, Sarah looked at the forward window to try to see anything. Seeing just normal hyperspace (oxymoron), she eased around, and began walking around the forward window. She began looking around, seeing if anything was there, then casually walked back to the hatch. Flinging it open, she looked Captain Brant in the eye and said, "There's nothing out there."  
  
Sputtering in disbelief, Captain Brant cautiously eased his way up. When he realized that the metal octopus was no longer there, he turned around, with a pleading look on his face. "But I swear to you, there was a metal octopus there. It had arms reaching out to this ship, and, and, . . ."  
  
But Sarah was already headed back toward her hammock, ignoring his pleas for her to listen to him. She passed the other engineer on the bridge, where he was leaning against the wall, sound asleep. She jabbed him in the ribs, waking him up, and continued on her way, already mentally falling asleep so she wouldn't be sleepy on watch. It was only a half an hour until they went through the next jump gate, and going through a jump gate was easier on her stomach if she was asleep. Falling onto her hammock, she fell asleep in seconds.  
  
*  
  
The probe droid, if it was human, would have been laughing its head off. The only person that had spotted it was the ship's drunk, and everyone else was ignoring the report. In the meantime, it had detected a communications cable between the main computer and a console in the bridge. It began analyzing the signals between them, trying to see if it could use that console to download a copy of the ship's main core. With no knowledge of the ship's operating system, it would have to download everything, and let others decide what was important. It slowly watched the data transfers, comparing what it observed with the data flow, and began isolating the communications.  
  
*  
  
Captain Brant looked out the window as the freighter approached the jump gate beacon. He hadn't had a single drink since the scare earlier, and it was starting to affect him. But he was able to handle the standard transmission systems, and he activated the communications dish. It sent the signal to open the jump gate, and the freighter was through.  
  
*  
  
The probe droid noted the communication dish extend, and began listening to it with its radio ears. It detected the signal, and suddenly its visual sensor detected the jump gate forming. Setting an alert flag on its broadcast, it opened its sensors and transmitters, and began feeding data back along the chain at a far higher rate than before. This method was fairly easy to detect if you were near the transmission path, but this new data was deemed too important to compress.  
  
*  
  
The operator monitoring the probe droid took one look at what was coming in, and called for the Bridge Duty Officer. The Bridge Duty Officer took one look at the data coming in, especially what lay beyond the jump gate, and grabbed his communicator. Quickly dialing the Captain, he spoke a few words into it, then motioned for the sensor technician to send a copy of the imagery to her viewscreen.  
  
The results of that view, of the probe droid showing the system beyond the jump gate did wonders at banishing her sleep. A few quick orders from her had the sensor imagery transferred to the other ships, and soon every Captain and the Grand Admiral was awake and viewing the images. Orders soon followed to send the two Star Destroyers and the Survey Cruiser through the tear, in an attempt to get the data they needed, to open that jump point, and to eventually create their own.  
  
*  
  
The probe droid detached after the freighter went through the jump point, to avoid losing contact. It tried to enter through the jump point to return, but the jump point closed up again, and the probe droid stopped relative to the gate structure. It had no way of getting back into contact with the other droids, so it performed the standard procedure. Shutting down all of its active systems, reducing its power plant to minimal levels, and saving the remaining data into hard memory, it awaited retrieval.  
  
*  
  
The Captains and the Grand Admiral met less than half an hour later. Deciding that this information needed to be discussed immediately, a holographic conversation room had been set up. Each person there looked as though they were present in living color, but in reality, the people were on their own ships, and it merely looked like they were meeting in one room. Since the holograms were little more than computer images, the Captains sometimes got informal, and often dressed in work uniforms, while having the holograms put an image of their uniform over their actual images.  
  
The discussions that went on in there were numerous, but the image of a normal star system was the deciding factor. The two Star Destroyers would go through, along with the Survey Cruiser. One of the Star Destroyers would head off in the same direction as the freighter, and try to open the jump gate. The others would patrol the tear on the far side, extending their detection radius by using their fighters. In the meantime, their sensor technicians would try to better understand the physics of hyperspace.  
  
Captain Velhom decided he would take his ship through first, as he had been there the longest. The smaller probe ship that was originally there had long since departed, off to explore somewhere else. Matching his ship to the grav surges, he started in.  
  
Looking out the windows of the flag bridge, the tear in reality was impossible. It looked like the inside of a tornado, but instead of wind and debris being whirled about, it was ripped shreds of gravity, megaton strength explosions, and radiation pulses strong enough to fry a person so fast they would not even notice. But Star Destroyers are designed to withstand combat with their own kind for over half an hour, and the trip through the tear barely put a strain on its shields.  
  
On the other side, in hyperspace, the Star destroyer seemed to stretch as it exited the tear, and suddenly it was there, its looming triangular presence announcing to anyone nearby that the Empire had come, and it was there to stay. The crew checked over their systems, and sent an all-clear message back to the ships still waiting. Moving out of the way slightly, the Agatrix waited for the other ships to arrive. The Eager Fire was the next one through, followed by the Verentor. All of the ships had arrived safely, and were busy restoring their shields after the passage.  
  
Reviewing the records, Captain Velholm talked with the Grand Admiral, "Sir, based on the current conditions in the tear, I would advise waiting until the simu-tunnel equipment arrives before transiting in your ship. It is possible for a shuttle to transit, but the pilot would have to a genius to get through the passage safely."  
  
"Exactly Captain. The Emperor's Hand has arrived, and she will be transiting through the tear herself. She will take up residence on your ship, and assist you in any way you ask or she feels necessary."  
  
'An Emperor's Hand on his ship?' Captain Velholm thought to himself. 'Why send an Emperor's Hand? They were only needed to flush out rebels, or provide assistance to Captains during risky First Contact situations. There is nothing out here yet to warrant a First Contact situation, so why is one coming here? Not only that, but if there would be a First Contact, the Eclipse would be there to handle the communications, not his ship.'  
  
A few seconds later, a small vessel popped through the tear. It was not a standard Imperial Lambda shuttle, but a larger form of Imperial TIE fighter. A quick review of the records indicated that the closest match was the TIE Defender class, but this one seemed larger than usual, obviously for any personal or long-duration items an Emperor's Hand might need.  
  
A communications technician took the message, and it was short and simple, "This is Emperor's Hand Teleso, I have permission to dock and am coming in now. I will be landing in ten minutes and will proceed to the bridge from there." With that, the communication was terminated, and the commtech turned to his superior, and the message was passed up to the Captain.  
  
The Defender landed quickly, and the Emperor's Hand made her way to the bridge. Hands are known for their efficiency in everything, and people got out of her way as she took the shortest path to the bridge. When she arrived, she walked straight up to the Captain and said, "I am Emperor's Hand Teleso. I will be staying on board your ship until I decide to leave. When the time is right, I will explain why I am here." With that, she turned and walked to the back of the bridge, and began reviewing the various items that had happened recently. She paid special attention to the patterns of the tear, watching it with silent eyes.  
  
Captain Velholm glanced back at the Emperor's Hand after she had walked away. 'Well, at least she isn't taking command immediately. Still, I wonder what she meant by when the time is right?'  
  
After several hours of patrolling and waiting, a message arrived from the other side of the tear. The simu-tunnel equipment had arrived and was being set up. Currently, only a small stabilizing tunnel was being set up, only eight kilometers wide, as that would allow smaller cruisers to pass through easily, and the Eclipse to pass through with minimal exposure to its shields. There were several other ships that arrived, and another Star destroyer, the Violence had already passed through, making it a total of 3 Star Destroyers and the Survey Cruiser on the far side. The Violence's Captain was still junior to Captain Velholm, so he was still in overall command of the Imperial forces on this side of the tear, if you didn't count the Emperor's Hand.  
  
The Eager Fire had already departed to the jump gate where the freighter had passed through. They had sent the same signal as the freighter, and the jump gate had activated normally. The Star Destroyer had passed through into normal space, and its engineers were already getting into EVA suits to figure out how a jump gate worked, and if they could modify their own engines to do a similar maneuver.  
  
The reason for wanting to use their own engines to enter hyperspace, was because they figured the jumpgate possessed basic computer security and recording systems. Jump gates would have a simple recorder on them that stored the identities of all ships that passed through them, for easy billing and record-keeping by their owners. If Imperial vessels started using those jump gates with the same ship's codes, it would soon become obvious that someone else was using them.  
  
But if they used their own hyperdrives to enter hyperspace, then nobody would be able to track them. Even better was a question that had been asked earlier. One of the ship's maneuvering officers had asked if it was necessary to leave hyperspace as soon as the ship arrived at its destination. Several others had thought about it, and had come to the conclusion that a ship could actually wait in hyperspace, until it decided to leave. The tactical officers had seized upon that concept with a greed, as it meant that a ship could sit in hyperspace until needed, and then pop out effectively on top of the target. The only disadvantage would be the time needed to open the jump vortex, but since the attacking ship would have the advantage of surprise, it was decided to go with it. That capability, if it could also be used in their galaxy, would give their ships a tactical advantage over any remaining rebels.  
  
After several days, the jump gate physics were figured out, with extensive help from eight major research stations in the Empire, and the Eager Fire began modifying their hyperdrives. Generators came on-line, field coils were humming, and an orange vortex formed in front of the vessel. A brief surge of power from its engines, and the Eager Fire went into hyperspace, under its own power.  
  
The simu-tunnel was also being set up during that same time frame, and it had just finished. The World Devastator was the first ship through, as it would proceed to the new star system, and start producing materials and the base needed to start their conquest of this new galaxy. After it transited, it proceeded to the location, and opened its own jump point, proving that the overall design of the hyperdrive was well able to handle the far lower power levels to open a jump point. A Star Destroyer used enough power in a single jump to exceed what a planetary civilization used in its entire lifetime. A World Devastator was the same size, and its power plants were no less capable.  
  
The jump vortex faded away, and the World Devastator headed inwards towards the local sun, its sensors already looking for a useful planet to start mining operations. Spotting a local planet, the ship began looking for Trojan asteroids, which would tell it the planets ecliptic plane. With that data, it could find a decent planet to put the base, and a few worthless planets to consume for raw materials. A fiercely radiating source was spotted, and observing it to be a gas giant, the planetary system was further mapped. It also gave a little more information about the plane of the system, and the teams looking for the trojan asteroids had a much easier time.  
  
Back at the tear, the information was relayed back to the Eclipse battleship, and from there to Coruscant. The other ships requested had also arrived, and eight cruisers and three more World Devastators stood ready to follow the Eclipse through the tear. The great ship moved slowly but steadily, its bulk a symbol of the Empire's might and power. Capable of sterilizing a planet in less than ten minutes, the great ship moved forward into the tear to dominate everything in its path.  
  
But events elsewhere would change that. 


	2. Darkness

Elsewhere:  
"Activate Jump gate sequence, now!"  
  
A swirling pattern of orange forms within the structure floating in space. In a few seconds the hole opens, and a single small vessel flies through the tear in reality, barely ahead of a larger dark vessel pursuing.  
  
The white vessel looked like a type of bird, graceful and swift. The dark vessel was a black that seemed to soak up light, with thin arms that reached ahead of itself, as though it desired to capture and kill anything it wanted.  
  
"Activate Rear Jump Engines, now!"  
  
A second tear in reality forms within the jump gate, and one can see that the vortex is getting ready to overload. The dark vessel shimmers into view, but is caught in the explosion as the jump gate releases all its energy at once. The crew of the small vessel manage to ride out the shock wave, and congratulate themselves on surviving the blast radius. They then opened another tear in reality, and headed towards their home, delighted over their victory.  
  
*  
  
But no one had ever seen what happened on the other side of a jump gate explosion. The explosion had also generated a small energy pulse, traveling through hyperspace. Given time, it would eventually dissipate, but it would not get that chance.  
  
A scanner tech noticed the energy wave first. It was far below the level necessary to penetrate the Violence's shields, but his job was to call out anything unusual on his ship's sensors.  
  
"Sir, I have an energy pulse approaching at 238 by 12. Range 375 and closing. It will not penetrate our shields."  
  
Captain Beleron of the ship was bored as well, and was curious about this new contact. With an Eclipse battleship coming through, and a Grand Admiral on board, he wanted to know everything that was going on. Calling the local display on his holograph, he highlighted the energy pulse. With a click of a button, the computer highlighted the pulse's probable path and-  
  
"Starboard Engines to full power now! Get us in front of that energy wave right now!"  
  
Imperial officers are conditioned to obey, and their reactions were exemplary, even as their minds raced, wondering what was going on. But Captain Beleron watched as the pulse proceeded on its course. If he could get his ship in the way, the pulse would be dissipated, but if he failed, the pulse would hit the tear. If that pulse hit the tear, it could cause the whole tunnel to collapse, closing it completely, leaving them with no way home.  
  
The Hand on the Agatrix also sensed the pulse. She concentrated for a moment, and saw what would happen. Looking across futures possible, she knew what needed to be done. Slipping into a trance, she insinuated herself in the mind of a senior engineer, and began to reset the equipment, changing the protected tunnel size.  
  
The Violence's engines screamed as the Captain ordered full power, bypassing the safety locks, her hull creaking as the strain of a multi-trillion ton starship being accelerated and turned tore at the structure. If it could stop the wave, there would be nothing to worry about. But if the pulse hit the tear, the ship and its crew would be stuck with no way home.  
  
The Captain of the Eclipse heard the frantic message, but they were too far into the tear, and could not back out in time. Throwing engine safeties aside, she ordered full speed ahead, trying to get out of the tear before the pulse hit.  
  
It was not enough. The pulse skipped off the side of the Violence's shields, barely losing any strength in the process. It hit the tear, and the carefully restrained and balanced energies went insane. Within the tear itself, the vortex began shifting. Where it had been a steady rotation around the edge of the passage, the variants of reality began bouncing further into the center, and some began connecting with the Eclipse's shields. Megaton level blasts began to build up, making the shields hit start to glow with the dissipated energies. Radiation monitors began wailing, and ship's personnel began moving towards the center of the ship, using the thick hull and interior walls as radiation shielding.  
  
The Captain saw what was happening, saw her ship getting pounded, and knew that it was now a race between her ship getting through and the tear collapsing. Since the tunnel equipment was back at the other end, the end she was approaching would collapse first. Fortunately for her, the ring station was keeping the tunnel open, and it would be open long enough for her to get the Eclipse through.  
  
Senior Engineer Hamell twitched at his station, as the new instructions poured into his brain. He tried to resist for a moment, but his will was swept aside by the Hand. Hand Teleso knew that the Eclipse could not be completely saved, so she had decided to save what was possible. Reprogramming the tunnel for a new diameter, she set up a tube barely a meter wide. Since everyone knew that with a smaller area to act upon, the strength of the tunnel would be far greater. By shrinking the tunnel from 4 kilometers wide to one meter wide, she was making it as hard as possible to close.  
  
The Captain of the Eclipse did not know that at the time, but what she did see made her pale. The storms ahead of her that had been confined to distances safely away from her ship suddenly surged up, stretching across from one side to the other. With full speed already ordered, she ordered maximum power to the shields, hoping they would provide some protection against the holocaust looming in front of her.  
  
Surges of sub-nuclear explosions hit the great ship's shields, hammering them down with repeated blows. Generators overloaded, yet the Eclipse was a true warship, with shields that could be reconfigured and moved, and neighboring shields slid into place, protecting the ship's armor from the fury raging barely meters from the hull.  
  
Yet the fury would not be denied its goal. The front of an Eclipse battleship was one hundred stories tall, and the side of it was an excellent target. A small burst got past two shield generators and exploded against the hull, making it ripple for hundreds of meters in all directions. Two more bursts got through, eating deeper into the hull before defensive shields finally stopped the remainders, yet the damage was done. A crater over two hundred meters wide and fifty deep had been blasted into the side of the ship, and the damage was just starting. Other shields failed in other areas, and storms of radiation poured into them, megaton yield explosions hammered the hull like machine gun blasts, yet the ship continued on. As if it knew that the only way out of the storm was through the worst of it, the engines kept burning, and the skeleton held together.  
  
Finally, the Eclipse came through the other side, and everyone there stared at it in shock, for the engine section had actually touched the edges of the tear, and over two thirds of its engines were simply gone. The rest of the ship was not in much better shape, as atmosphere gushed from thousands of holes, and the armor that normally gave it a sleek look had been peeled back in strips over a hundred meters long. Everyone in the outer hundred meters of the hull had been killed by radiation, and the people within were starting to begin recovery operations.  
  
The crews of the other two star destroyers looked on in shock at the wreck in front of them. The Eclipse battleships were known as among the toughest ships in the fleet, second only to Super Star Destroyers, and that was not by a large margin. But this vessel looked like it had gone a couple rounds with the Death Star.  
  
The other star destroyer crews stared a little in shock, then officers began yelling orders to begin Search and Rescue operations. The two Star Destroyers could barely hold a percent of an Eclipse's crew, but they could take on the worst hurt, and try to get some of the Eclipse's own systems running again. If they could get main power, the sickbays, and the engines running again, it could even be possible to maneuver the ship into normal space, where they could park it in an orbit somewhere.  
  
On board the Eclipse, emergency power still flowed through several areas, and automatic blast doors had been sealed even before the transit. Coughing against the smoke, Commander Vulon called up a display of the battleship, demanding to see what had happened. The display horrified him. Thousands of people had died on the outer edges of the ship from the radiation, holes were gashed deep into the hull, and some portions of the ship had been torn away completely. In fact, one of those portions was-  
  
The Main Bridge. Where Grand Admiral Veh'kor and the Captain had been before they had made transit, and now there was a hole. Realizing that he was the commanding officer of the Eclipse, Commander Vulon began calling for people to find medical kits, and get people who need help to the sickbays. Getting the people organized, he was able to get the main power back on-line, but the engineers warned him that the reactor was fairly unstable. They could only give him fifty percent power, but that was thirty more than he needed. Sickbays began to fill with wounded, and the Search and Rescue shuttles arrived from the other Star destroyers to take off the seriously wounded.  
  
Suddenly, a message came through the tear. "This is Ring Command. We were barely able to keep the smaller tunnel open. Right now it does not look like we can reopen the tunnel anytime soon, but we will be able to perform communications roughly every two weeks. It looks like you're on your own. The message has already been transmitted back to Coruscant of the tunnel's near-collapse, and we would like a further report from Grand Admiral Veh'kor as soon as possible. Ring Command out."  
  
It took several minutes, but Captain Velholm was able to get the necessary information together, and he transmitted the report. It included the near destruction of the Eclipse, a visual and scanner analysis of the hull, and initial reports from the Search and Rescue teams. Further information was added by Commander Vulno as he reported in. It was confirmed that the Grand Admiral was missing, and the names of those who had died on board the Eclipse were included as well.  
  
The coordinates of the tear exit were recorded, and the remaining ships made the travel to the new star system they had detected earlier. Even in the Eclipse's wounded state, it still possessed more than enough power to open its own jump point, and it exited into normal space, where the news of the disaster was spreading to the Eager Fire and the Hunger.  
  
Captain Velholm called for a meeting of the Captains in two hours, on board the Eclipse, as though to remind them of the massive task that lay ahead of them, and the other Captains agreed. Commander Vulon would be there by necessity (it was his ship), and Hand Teleso was invited there as well.  
  
Captain Velholm was ruined over the entire affair. He knew that there was no way for them to return, and yet he still had to project the calm, assured manner of an Imperial commanding officer, no matter his private feelings. But how? He had a fair idea of how to run an sector, but he only had three Star destroyers, a single World Devastator, a single Survey cruiser, and a badly damaged Eclipse battleship that was more of a target than an asset. That was all he had, and he wanted so much to turn the job over to the Emperor's Hand, and let her be the new Empress of this galaxy. That was the proper way of things, with the Emperor or Empress giving the orders and the officers obeying. Now all he had to do was figure out a way to get her to accept the title.  
  
But as he was thinking and changing into his proper uniform for the meeting, Teleso walked into his room, and immediately began speaking. "Captain, there are several things you should know, and this is the right time to tell you. First, the Eclipse could not have been saved. The pulse that hit the tear was the straw that broke its back. There were several other waves that had been building up. It was only a matter of time before the tear broke. If the pulse had not hit when it did, the tear would have imploded within a few more minutes, closing it completely. I decided not to inform Captain Berelon of the pulse because of that. If he had known of the pulse, he would have gotten his ship in the way, and the Eclipse would have been totally destroyed, and the tear would have been severed, leaving us with no way to communicate with the Empire, or possibility of reopening contact.  
  
"Also, I know you intend to propose me as the new Empress of this galaxy. That will not happen. We are still in contact with the Empire, and there can be only one Emperor or Empress. You are the highest-ranking Imperial officer here, so you will assume the title and job of Imperial governor. You only have these ships, but a World Devastator is not just a mere factory ship. It is a vessel that can turn out hundreds of fighters in a day if given the instructions, and can reproduce itself in less than two weeks. Use that capability well Captain, for it is the second biggest asset you have.  
  
"The main asset we have right now, is you. You have the knowledge and the will to be an Imperial Governor, if you are willing to work for it. So stop your self-pitying, stop grasping about how to pass the job on to someone else, and start thinking. If you need, discuss your ideas out loud with me. If I feel you are on the wrong track, I will tell you. Now I want you to tell me, what is the first thing we need to do?"  
  
Velholm was stunned, nobody spoke to an Imperial Captain that way; except, she was right. He had always seen the Imperial Governors as people who watched others do the work while they sat back and relaxed, but his mind began to shift, and he began to see it from their point of view. He had to not just keep his ships supplied, he now had to get the Eclipse repaired, and avoid contact with potentially hostile forces until then. After that, he had to initiate contact on his terms, and slowly get the nature of the galaxy, getting a feel for the local power structures. From there, he could start to either conquer the systems for the Empire, or get them allied with the Empire.  
  
"First, we get the Eclipse to the star system we detected earlier." A nod "Once there, the Hunger will get busy repairing enough systems to bring it up to basic operational capability. It still has its main reactor, so shielding will be low, but still some coverage. Once it is back up as a defensive vessel, the World Devastator will commence on self-replication. With two of them going, one can continue to work on the Eclipse, while the second does nothing but self-replication."  
  
Another nod.  
  
"While the Eclipse is being repaired, the Verentor can be launching its probe droids to nearby systems. This system is not safe for us to be in, as there is a trade route passing through here. Until our forces are built back up to where I feel safe, I will not risk contact. As soon as the Eclipse's reactor is safe, its hull has been patched, and the probe droids have found a new system, we will go there."  
  
Another nod, but Captain Velholm was going ahead anyway.  
  
"We will have to maintain contact every two weeks, but a Star Destroyer can easily do that, hypering in, jumping to that red space, and communicating. Once repairs and self-replication are going well, we can send more probe droids to other systems, finding out who is in charge in these parts. If we manage to establish contact with a small force, even that freighter we saw earlier, we can use them as a front group to feel out the other empires out there, or even find out if there is a single empire in control.  
  
"If there are multiple empires, we can try to get control of one of them, and proceed from there getting control of the others. This will require your diplomacy training to assist me. If there is a single empire, we will have to evaluate the government, and decide if we want the current members in power. If we do, we can simply negotiate with them. If not, we can subvert them from the inside."  
  
Teleso smiled at this, as it showed that Velholm was already thinking of how to use her as part of his plan, not merely obey her orders out of habit. He was thinking, and she needed him to think, to put his mind to work, and get the other Captains and officers thinking as they never had before.  
  
"We cannot offer the usual empire benefits of a strong military protection, trade deals, or investment advantages, so we will have to be more creative in determining what is required in these cases."  
  
Stopping suddenly, Velholm realized that he had switched himself to strategic thinking for the entire galaxy, and he smiled as he realized that he was doing what needed to be done, not what he wanted to do. He now had the proper mindset to face the other Captains, and he began to walk towards the door of his quarters.  
  
"Um, Captain?"  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Don't forget your pants."  
  
His face turned bright red at that remark, and the Hand walked past him out the door, as he struggled to keep his face from staying red when he met the others. He knew also, that he would never get too full of himself, and that the Hand would be there to cut him down to size.  
  
*  
  
Arriving on the Eclipse, he received updated reports from all the ships, and outlined his plan. Several of the Captains looked skeptical at first, but as he gave them instructions for each step, they became more and more confident, even eager to expand their foothold in the new galaxy. But they were all aware of the dangers. They had only seen a single primitive freighter, but that didn't mean all vessels were that low in technology. One proposed idea was to reengineer all current TIE fighters into TIE Defenders, to use the shields and hyperdrive capabilities built into them to survive or avoid combat as needed. That proposal was accepted, but delayed for now in favor of getting the Eclipse ready for travel.  
  
*  
  
The black vessel paused in its searching. The area of hyperspace it was in tasted different. Its senses could identify any type of engine by the aftertaste its exhaust left in hyperspace, but this seemed strange. Almost as if the vessel was burning something that didn't fit in with reality, and using that as exhaust.  
  
But that didn't matter. It knew that any races that could challenge it were staying out of the fight, and anything else was a target. It altered course to follow the trail, planning to find out where it went, and destroy anything it found. Preparing its fighter ball, the black vessel armed its weapons, and began following the scent.  
  
*  
  
A scanner technician was on duty, watching the vessels currently in orbit of the rock ball the World Devastator was having for lunch. It was extremely hot, and parts of its surfaces were molten, but the Devastator was having an easy time extracting the elements needed from it. Several fighters and a pair of skipray blastboats were patrolling the area, keeping their emissions down while they watched for anything that might pop in. If they detected anything, they would send a tight-beam message to the Hunger, and it would shut down its mining operations, to avoid having anyone pick up its emissions.  
  
*  
  
It finally reached the end of the scent, and tasted the way the ships had exited hyperspace. Strange, there was no taste of that vital mineral, one that was essential to jump point formation. But that would be something else to show off when it returned, a new way to enter and leave hyperspace. In the meantime, since it did not need anything as crude or obvious as a jump gate, it slid through the barrier between, and looked at the ships clustered in front of it. 'Unusual vessels,' it thought, then it saw the larger item behind them. 'Now that thing is huge! But it appears badly damaged, and the others are trying to defend it. They must have heard of us, and are trying to get it repaired enough to get away. But I will destroy those vessels, and dispose of the cripple. Easy targets.' 


	3. Shadow Strike?

The scanner tech saw the vessel appear suddenly, and called out the alert. Two fighter squadrons in the area aimed their sensors in the general direction, and their blood chilled as they saw the sight. A black starship, looking like a spider from the pits of the darkest nightmares, with its legs spread out to ensnare them appeared suddenly, and more than one pilot gasped in shock. But orders were given and obeyed, and two squadrons of fighters moved in to intercept, with the Skipray blastboats close behind, and the Violence following after.  
  
*  
  
The black ship noticed the forces heading towards it, and chuckled. 'A three course meal, ready and served.' It activated its main weapon, and began locking onto the first set of fighters.  
  
*  
  
"Break and attack," came over the tactical channel, and the two squadrons of fighters suddenly rolled hard, shifting their vectors to prevent easy shots from claiming them. The Violence had detected the power surge near the front, and the fighters had figured it to be a weapon of some kind. Spiraling hard, they came up with the vessel in front of them, and opened fire.  
  
*  
  
It watched the fighters suddenly change directions, and it tried to follow both groups, but they were too far apart, so it chose the group on the left to destroy. Aiming at the lead vessel, it began maneuvering as well, trying to throw off any targeting the small fighters had. Although it could handle any weapon, there was no need to get hurt any more than desired. It locked in a firing series to hit every enemy fighter with its beam, and executed it.  
  
*  
  
Squadron leader Verhel watched as the black ship suddenly twisted and dodged, and she fired. But its maneuvers were too much too soon, and barely one tenth of her shots hit, and only four of the spines along one side were blown off. Then her screen went white, and she couldn't see anything.  
  
From the Skipray blastboats, they saw the vessel turn quickly, and fire some sort of beam weapon at the six fighters. They expected to see six explosions, and were a bit surprised when there were none. They then looked at the alien ship, and saw that all the spines along one side were blown off, and half the spines on the other side were similarly missing. Calling up a scan of one of the TIE fighters, they noticed a ragged scar along the cockpit window, which showed what would have been a dead Imperial pilot if the window hadn't been so tough.  
  
*  
  
PAIN! PAIN! AGONY! The fighters had hurt it, and it was bleeding from over a dozen wounds on its sides. It was finally able to handle the pain, and looked at its opponents. 'No, this can't be! Those were only fighters! My weapon should have destroyed all of them! My weapon can destroy ships with a single blast, and these things are still moving? Wait, those fighters were attacked by me, what about the other group?' Too late, it looked at its scanners, and saw the other group of fighters coming in, their weapons already firing. Panicking, it fired its fighter ball, hoping those expendable vessels would be able to distract these dangerous fighters long enough for it to escape. It needed several seconds to slide back to safety, and hopefully these vessels would concentrate on the fighters long enough to do so.  
  
*  
  
"What the-" came over the fighter tactical net as a spiky sphere suddenly shot from the alien vessel. But that reaction came after the pilots of the second squadron had already fired their weapons, and explosions of biological material were forced upwards from the alien ship as the fighter turbolasers found their mark. When high-temperature plasma met living matter, the water within it was flash heated to steam, causing explosions that ripped into the vessel. The vessel was not destroyed outright by the blasts, as the superheated plasma was vented outwards by the exploding body mass.  
  
Breaking off from the dying vessel, the fighters raced after the sphere, when suddenly it seemed to explode, separating into dozens of smaller shapes, each of which began maneuvering to attack. There were a total of twelve Imperial TIE fighters in the fight, versus forty black shapes that began to attack them. The Imperials were outnumbered by better than three to one, but they attacked anyway. After the first couple of volleys though, it became apparent that the alien vessels were unable to do more than cause a minor scorch mark to the TIE fighters, while the TIEs were obliterating every fighter they fired upon. It was over in less than a minute, with the last alien fighter trying to flee with two TIE fighters on its tail. It didn't get very far.  
  
Turning back to the alien mothership, the fighters began to dodge and weave around it, ready to get the killing blow in.  
  
*  
  
The alien ship looked at the fight in horror. The fighters, even the ones it had damaged with its beam were far superior to its own, and they had come after it as well. Its engines to escape back into hyperspace were badly damaged, and rapid healing could only work so fast. But what was that second group of vessels doing?  
  
*  
  
The Skipray blastboats heard the orders and changed their weapon selection. Up until then, they had asked for the finishing blow, and the TIE fighters had granted it to them. But now, the Captain wanted to take that ship fairly intact, and they were ordered to use their ion cannons to immobilize it for study. With the ion cannons selected, they began to fire at the vessel using carefully metered bursts. They wanted to fire enough to shut down its power systems, but not enough to leave it an electrocuted husk. They would fire, check their sensors, then fire again, being very careful.  
  
*  
  
Agony. Despair. The blasts hitting it were being conducted into the ship's CPU, where the human there writhed from the blasts. Without the human to control it, the ship's reactor was spiraling out of control, and the ion blasts were removing what few biological safeties were present. After three more volleys, the safeties were gone, and the power system exploded.  
  
*  
  
The Skipray gunners watched as the vessel suddenly exploded. They had been careful with their shots, and didn't see how the vessel could have exploded like that. Their pilot broke the silence, "Well gentlemen, it looks like the ship's main power plant blew. What say we round up any pieces, and take them back for study?" Seeing nothing else that could be done, the blastboats began the after-battle salvage, trying to bring in anything that might shed a clue on the identity or capabilities of their opponent.  
  
*  
  
After several of the pieces had been brought aboard, the technicians called over the medics, and asked them to take a look. Seeing the biological structures, the medics and technicians presented their initial report to the Captains later that day. When the evidence was presented and shown to be living material, the Captains ordered a copy to be saved for the next transmission to the Empire. In the meantime, the World Devastator continued its lonely path, consuming the metals beneath it to get the materials needed to repair the Eclipse. It had transferred to the fourth planet, as there were a couple veins of rare earths running close to the surface that it needed.  
  
*  
  
After a couple of days later, enough material had been gathered to close up the outside of the Eclipse, allowing various spaces to be repressurized, and repairs to those sections to be made in easier conditions. The fighters had been continuing their patrols, and had reported no new alien contacts during that time, and only a couple of freighters had been seen passing through. With the possibility of increased contact, probe droids had been dropped in the path the previous freighter had been seen to use, and they had downloaded some interesting information. One, was that although there was a central meeting place for all the races, called Babylon 5, it was not an actual government facility. Two, was word about various races that were at war with each other, providing opportunity for the Imperials to subtly influence one side or another.  
  
The most surprising fact of all, was that there were beings similar to humans in this galaxy! Although it had been determined roughly from the freighter they had seen earlier, the final confirmation was the radio chatter that had occurred between the two vessels. It had been analyzed carefully, and translators were already being programmed to translate English to Imperial Basic, and vice versa.  
  
Fortunately, a new system had been found with nobody home, and there was a decently habitable planet (by Imperial standards), a large asteroid belt, a couple of gas giants with various organic compounds in them, several rocky worlds that could be consumed, and various other odds and ends that made solar systems such interesting places for astronomers.  
  
The small fleet proceeded there, ready to continue expanding their fleet. The hyperjump took less than a couple minutes, and the vessels began settling into their routines. The Hunger began gathering up materials to copy itself, while the Agatrix, Eager Fire, and the Violence began conducting fighter patrols. The Verentor began launching its blastboats to use triangulation to start surveying the nearby solar systems, and placing their location on a star map that was being filled in slowly but steadily. The second World Devastator was built in eight days, but finding the crew for it was stretching their resources, as the Eclipse battleship had relied mainly on automation to reduce the crew load; with the number of people killed, that left even more jobs on board the ship requiring people to do them. The Imperial Forces were running out of people to do jobs, and with the number of droid programs and bodies available in the World Devastator's memory, it was only a matter of time before ships with 90% droid crews were popping up. The Captains didn't like to admit it, but they would soon be forced to make contact with the local races, simply to get the people they needed to man their ships.  
  
On the good side, the Skipray blastboats were doing an excellent job surveying the local systems. They would jump to either end of the local system, and scan local space for stars. After they had finished, they would transmit their data to the Survey Cruiser, and go to new locations. While they were recording the stellar patterns of more stars, the Survey Cruiser's computer would be number crunching, comparing the emissions of the stars to triangulate their locations. As soon as the Blastboats had completed another set of surveys, they would be given coordinates for a nearby system, and they would go to it, attempting to get a more exact fix on its location. The map of known space, for the Imperials, was being expanded very quickly.  
  
On board the second World Devastator, the Selvas, another discussion was beginning to go on. Captain Velholm had recognized the need for quality pilots, and the way current TIE fighters had no hyperdrive engines or shields was a major factor. He wanted to start converting all of the on-board standard TIEs, A-9 Vigilance, and TIE Interceptors into TIE Defenders, as they had onboard shields and hyperdrive. With shields, they would be able to easily survive hits from the local parasite weapons, and with hyperdrive, if there were too many parasites, the fighters could leave easily. This way, if any more of those mile long, black, spidery parasites came around, a fighter patrol would be able to deal with them easily.  
  
In the meantime, it would be necessary for the Selvas to delay its self-replication until the new fighters were built. At 6 squadrons of Defenders and variants per Star Destroyer, plus the fighters for the Modular Cruiser, that was a total of 240 fighters that would have to be built, so it would only delay the self-replication by a couple days. The key delay would be redesigning the recon fighters, the A-9 Vigilance fighters, and the TIE bombers to have the hyperdrive and shields working properly. For the basic fighters squadrons though, that was only 13 squadrons, and they would be delivered that afternoon. After those were completed construction, the technicians assured him they would have the kinks worked out of the recon fighters, the A-9s, and the bombers and they would be delivered tomorrow. After that redesign, they would add shields and hyperdrive to the droid fighters and bombers that were a World Devastator's standard complement, and those would be completed the day after. In total, he was looking at around three days to refit and build all of his fighters with shields and hyperdrive, and not compromise their capabilities. In short, it was a normal request and turnaround for Imperial technicians.  
  
After the fighters were delivered, the pilots began training in their new use. The blind spot on the Defender was something that would have to be gotten used to, but the shields made their lifespan much greater than before. In addition, some pilots were experimenting using the hyperdrives to do rapid maneuvers. A pilot on one side of a formation would make a pair of microjumps, and would be on the other side of the furball, and opening fire on someone who was definitely not expecting it. Soon furballs began to almost disappear, as fighters would jump in, strike, and jump back out to let their shields and weapons recharge. Of course, the other side would be jumping in as well, trying to take advantage of their momentary vulnerability.  
  
Soon though, information began to come in. A couple of Skiprays had found colonies of larger powers, and were steadily working their way in, but at low power. They were staying well clear of the jump gate nearby, as there was a ship heading from it. There was very little surface to space traffic, in fact there was almost no traffic whatsoever. The usual numbers of ships that were around even a minor world of the Empire were nonexistent, and it appeared as though there was only a single landing strip for ground to space shuttles, not even a decent starport. A few hundred square miles of land were given over to agriculture, and a small town was in the middle of it. There was a small hydroelectric power plant on a river nearby, and a small communications station near the landing field, obviously for coordinating the landing and launching of the planetary shuttles. Even better, from the Skipray's point of view, was that when the freighter arrived, they could observe the landing, and loading/unloading process for future reference.  
  
The freighter finally arrived, and they watched as a pair of primitive fusion powered shuttles came up and exchanged supplies. Even with the low technology available, the cargo transfer was efficient, and the freighter took onboard another load of food supplies, while the shuttles loaded up more spare parts and engineering equipment. The shuttles used atmospheric reentry to slow down, and landed in short order. The Skipray crew was amazed at the sequence of events. First, the freighter had not even tried to land, which would be expected for something that small. Second, the shuttles used orbital intersection to rendezvous with the freighter, not a simple launch and direct interception. Finally, was the way the shuttles had used aero braking to slow down, where an Imperial shuttle would simply head down, and land.  
  
When that data arrived back at the Eclipse, where the Imperial forces were being coordinated from, there was a lot of speculation over what was going on. There was evidence of high technology, judging from the parasites and the obvious defenses and weaponry needed to fight them off; yet there was the extremely low technology shown by the freighter scans and the shuttle flights. Assuming no other data available, the Imperial would proceed under the assumption that the freighters and shuttles were an anomaly, and the technology needed to fend off or destroy the parasite was the local standard.  
  
To get the proper information though, they needed to observe a fight between two or more empires, with top of the line warships dueling. There were reports of various races being aggressive with each other, so it would be necessary to deploy probes to their borders, to watch them carefully. Because of the nature of hyperspace fights, simply watching the space between the two empires would not be enough, they would have to drop off probes at the actual planets, and maintain a single Star Destroyer on rapid alert, ready to go to the planet as soon as a fight was possible.  
  
Once the third World Devastator was built, it began working on another important item. The planet below could be colonized using Imperial technology, and it was time to do so. Specialized colony buildings were built using materials gathered from the asteroid belt, and droids to construct the buildings were launched to the planet. Barracks, landing centers, repair shops, living quarters, communication centers, defensive shields, and ground based weapons were among the first items to be installed, with the rest of the colony's items to be coming later. Most of the items there were designed around keeping the personnel there fairly comfortable, but the defensive shields and ground-based turbolasers were a standard component of a modern Imperial colony.  
  
Ever since the ill-fated Trade Federation attack against a literally defenseless planet, every planet had clamored for its own shields and ground-based weapons. After the decimation of Camaas, where a single ship had killed every inhabitant and so damaged the planet that it was easier to spend at least 40 years terraforming another planet, the original shields around each planet had been upgraded to last several weeks against bombardment. Of course, that arms race had to be countered by a vessel with a weapon capable of penetrating the newer defensive shields, which had called for the Death Star, and its variants. The Emperor had also slapped down a law prohibiting the establishment of heavier shields, and many of the races had agreed to it quickly. First, many of the current shields required enough materials and maintenance as to make it effectively impossible to upgrade it further, and second was that the Empire would haul the cost of building a nastier Death Star off onto the taxpayers. The final reason was that after the New Empire was established, the Death Star was built, but put into mothballs around Coruscant. If someone tried to demothball it, the number of ships needed to do so would be obvious, even in Coruscant's traffic, that everyone would notice. Also, if someone wanted to get a shield that could withstand the Death Star, everyone else would want to know why, and demand a full investigation by the Emperor and his forces, in addition to their own 'agents'.  
  
Since people wanted to enjoy peace, they didn't want to have to deal with the increased taxes a new war would cost, unless it could be proved that it was necessary. With the amount of doubt and suspicion on Emperor Solo, getting that proof would be very difficult. But he was slowly bringing the people around to the idea of a stable, centralized government as being necessary, so public opinion was slowly leaning towards him. It also helped that he encouraged a slight case of paranoia between the members, so the individual members of the Senate were beginning to trust him more than each other.  
  
With the defenses set up, the new Imperial colony could be assured of safety in case any of the parasites attacked. If anything else tried to attack, the time a shield would buy would allow the Imperial warships to return and engage the intruder. As far as the rest of the base, once the living quarters were in, people could come down here to rest, stretch out, and recuperate before getting back on board the ships. If the Imperials were able to get enough people on their side, the selected people would eventually form the core of a new fleet that would be used to conquer this new galaxy.  
  
Slowly, as the days went by, the map of their local space was added to. Three different races were identified, besides the human colony that had been watched by the Skipray earlier. The Centauri seemed to be rattling their sabers at everyone on their border for now, while the Drazi and Brakiri seemed to be staying out of the way. There were reports of other races, but so far none of their worlds had been sighted yet. Probes were stationed near Centauri, Drazi, and Brakiri worlds, in the hopes of actually observing their weapons practice. The station known as Babylon 5 had also been recorded, and its position was getting firmer with every new world detected. Since many ships would broadcast where they were going, the Imperial vessels were able to track down the number of worlds where ships were going to or from the place. When worlds said they only had a single jump to get there, those worlds were obviously closer than the ones that said they needed two or more jumps. A gradual sphere was being formed of worlds that were only one jump away, and patrols were already being dispatched towards the stars in the center of that sphere. It was only a matter of time before they found it.  
  
*  
  
Draal stirred as something caught his attention. Normally, as the new caretaker of the Great Machine buried inside Epsilon 3, he had lots of items that demanded his attention, but at times, he was able to simply look into space, and enjoy the view. He had been watching a certain section of space recently, and had watched the Shadow cruiser as it had attacked the new fighters. He had expected to see the fighters get vaporized by the cruiser, but had been a bit surprised by the results. Probing further through the machine, he tried to see within the vessels, but stopped when the machine sensed another presence there. He tried to get away, but he felt the presence seem to brush against him, and look him over. The presence seemed satisfied with what it found, and released him. He was still near the ships though, and felt the presence seem to be hovering over his shoulder, watching him as he watched the ships.  
  
Backing off a bit, he saw another vessel, similar to the others, but box-shaped, roughly one mile long, half a mile tall, and a quarter mile wide. A fairly impressive vessel, even to a Minbari, but what grabbed his attention immediately was what appeared to be a beam of light beneath it. Zooming his attention in closer, he saw that the beam was actually composed of smaller pieces of rock from the planet below. When the machine projected the sheer tonnage of the material being dragged up each second, he nearly gasped.  
  
But a voice talked to him immediately, "You seek information about us, we seek information about you and here. If you return here, we will want to trade."  
  
Suddenly, he found himself back in the main control room of the machine, disconnected from its neural interface. Sending his mind back into the machine, he tried to compare the vessels seen with any known vessels. The Narn were initially proposed as a possible match for the triangular ships, but there was too much difference to be acceptable. The humans were proposed as the owner of the brick-shaped ship sucking up the planet, but the structural bracing the ship possessed, not to mention the beam, were well beyond their technology to produce.  
  
So it had to be someone else, but who?  
  
*  
  
Teleso stirred as she came out of the trance. She had sensed the presence probing near the Imperial fleet, and had managed to contact it almost immediately. The mind was non-human, but she had trained to contact many types of alien minds, and it was a trivial effort to adapt herself. The presence behind it though, seemed to be a machine of some kind. Immediately recognizing the potential of a machine allowing someone to scan across the galaxy, she told him of the trade offer, and the return that would signal he had accepted it. Returning him to the machine, she had gotten a rough glimpse of the system where it was located, and of the station in orbit above the planet.  
  
*  
  
Elsewhere:  
The threats along the Centauri border continued. The Centauri were rattling their sabers at everyone, and the other races were fighting each other as well. For freighters traveling through there, it was a delicate balance of trying not to offend anyone, while also not make it look like they favored anyone. For Imperial probe droids, there was data everywhere they turned. They watched ships, cataloging weapon emissions, and destructive effects upon their targets. They cataloged armor emission spectra, defensive equipment, maneuverability, and internal arrangements of ships, and sent the reports back almost daily. Above all, they recorded the arrival times and exits of different ships, trying to determine top speeds, cruising speeds, and if they stopped at anywhere between the sightings. If they did, probe droids were allocated to nearby stars, trying to spot them.  
  
Planets belonging to different races were watched, and shipyard locations, sizes, repair rates, current projects, and statuses were recorded and sent back. Planetary productions for those systems were estimated, based on observed data, and were compared. Within another week, Imperial forces had a good idea of local strengths of various member of the League of Non-Aligned Worlds. Compilations of different races' ships were made, and the tactical computers of the ships and fighters were updated.  
  
At the end of each week, the Captains were given a review of the latest ships, with any updates of new information discovered about older vessels. Comparisons were made between each ship and Imperial vessels, and the information was soon emerging into a pattern; the parasites were actually far above the other races in technology, instead of being a minor threat. Even more astounding, some of the races appeared to be cooperating with them. A plan was proposed, to discretely aid those races that were fighting against the parasites, and to destroy parasite warships wherever they were detected.  
  
At one of the meetings, it was decided to build vessels that appeared similar to those of other races on the outside, but packed Imperial technology on the inside. Various designs were proposed, and all had their advantages and flaws. A warship would obviously be fired upon by one side, and questioned by the other, while freighters didn't have as much internal volume for weapons, shields, engines, and anything else that was wanted. It would be necessary to make some trade-offs, but that could be done easily.  
  
The important thing though, was to start building vessels that looked like locals, in order to start the espionage operations. Even more critical was to find and set up local contacts, in order to get a better feel for the region. The only possible source so far had been the human colony discovered so far, and it was decided to construct a freighter similar to the one seem earlier, and use that to make First Contact. Since the colony was primarily an agricultural colony, it was decided to include various technological items that would assist in farming. With the smaller size of components that were possible due to Imperial technology, various espionage droid systems were included as well. The droid packages were designed to observe what was going on, and report whenever an Imperial officer with the appropriate reception package was nearby. Probe droids would also be sent out, in order to make the machinery that was the correct shape. After all, if the local humans used two-wheeled tractors, and the Imperials wanted to sell anti-gravity droid-guided farm control machines, it might look a little odd.  
  
*  
  
The probe droids were on the way, and the orders had been transmitted to the third World Devastator. Its machinery went to work, and the sections of the freighter were turned out. Since the cargo modules along the sides were all the same shape, and the main body was little more than a series of welded tubes, it was easy to get the first mold set up, and them stamp out the parts needed. Assembling took about the same time, and the new freighter was ready in two days. On the outside, it looked like a normal human freighter, but the inside was far different. The Nuclear torch drive had been replaced by an ion drive and hypermatter reactor, with space to spare. Into that extra space though, had been added a hyperdrive configured to act as either a jump engine or standard hyperdrive, a shield generator, two small turbolaser cannons, a probe droid, and some imperial hand weaponry. The computers and sensors had been similarly upgraded, and the whole thing was capable of performing data retrievals from espionage droids and holding their data. The outer hull had also been made of the same material as the freighter seen, but inside the hull was a full inch of heavy armor. As a result, if anyone tried to attack that freighter, they would be in for the fight of their lives.  
  
The crew was selected based on past experience, and seniority. The highest ranking member was a commander, who had previously worked as a merchant before joining the military, and had been very good spotting cost overruns in military procurement budgets. The others were all quiet people, and the engineers selected had a passion for ancient technology, and could far more easily identify what was the local technology level. The final member was a single trooper, who would lead boarding assaults. Everyone was cross-trained, allowing anyone to take over someone else's job. The commander could double as an engineer or as a medic, although the robodoc on board would help in medical, one of the engineers was also a trooper, and the last engineer could also work with trade negotiations.  
  
The freighter was launched on its mission, and the World Devastators returned to their lonely dance, devouring the planet below to continue their growth.  
  
*  
  
Sarah sighed again, this time in boredom. She had managed to go without strangling Captain Brant on the rest of the trip, but only because he was sober. That in itself was surprising, but so was the way he had stopped singing. All of his time now seemed devoted to finding that metal octopus, like some Captain Ahab of old. At the last stop, he had gone around to the other Captains, telling them of what he saw, and asking them if they had seen anything like it. The others had started referring to him as Captain Ahab or Captain Octopus after a while, and he had given up. Fortunately, for her, she could sleep quietly again, and her bridge watch would pass quietly as well. Looking at the time again, she saw five more hours before they would enter the jump gate.  
  
*  
  
The raider leader looked at his display. He had hoped to find a freighter in this area, and here was not one, but two freighters coming into range. It even looked like the second freighter was far enough back that he could deal with the first, and then snap up the second. Telling his wingmen to standby, he ordered their carrier to jump into the system, and release them. The carrier would hang around until the freighters were damaged enough, then close in to pick up any useful cargo. If things got messy, or if a fighter patrol was encountered, the carrier had enough firepower and armor to handle them.  
  
In the meantime, "Form up within the first one's blind spot, then attack."  
  
*  
  
The first clue Sarah had was the blast that went off directly over the engineering section. Looking at her sensors, she saw over two dozen small craft sweeping out of the blind spot caused by the engine's exhaust. 'Raiders!' Turning on the emergency channel, she broadcast, "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. Freighter Barenica is under attack by hostile forces. Anyone in range please respond! Freighter Barenica to attacking vessels, we are unarmed and defenseless. We surrender, we surrender!" But another blast on the hull answered her pleas, as the raiders knew that if they took survivors, they would have to feed them. 


	4. Part 4Okay, so I couldn't think of a pro...

The Imperial crew were scanning the radio frequencies when the call came in. At first, they were uncertain if they should intervene or not, but only for a second. For Imperial officers really don't like pirates, and here was a batch of them directly in front, attacking an unarmed freighter. Accelerating their engine, they began heading into the battle. The twin turbolasers were deployed, and the shields raised. Targeting computers locked onto the swirling fight in front of them, and fingers caressed triggers gently, before pulling.  
  
Sarah was shaking. Their engines had been badly hit, killing the other engineer on watch with her. The crew quarters had been hit as well, but it hadn't been hit that bad, so it was still holding air. Captain Brant had been killed by a buckling girder, and Scott was badly hurt as well. His legs had been broken in several places by the girder, and was going into shock. She had tried to give enough painkiller medicine from the First Aid kit, and held him to prevent heat loss, but she knew that he was going to die. Either from his wounds or from the Raiders, but he was going to die. All she wanted to do now was to hold him, and tell him everything will be okay, but she couldn't say anything, and held him to her like a life preserver. Idly a part of her mind noted that the blasts had stopped, and she knew that the Raiders would be coming aboard soon to finish the two of them off. She could not see what was happening outside, only listen to the silence, their breathing, and their beating hearts, one getting slower and slower.  
  
The Raider leader blinked in surprise from the static. "Ep 5 report. Ep 5!" He didn't know what had happened, as for a moment, Ep 5 had been giving him an update on the targeted freighter, then was suddenly cut off. Scrolling through the telemetry report, he saw that Ep 5 was nowhere to be seen. The only way for that was if it had been destroyed. He took another look at his scanner, and saw the second freighter moving up at three G's. That was very high for a freighter, but he had more than enough Raiders to handle what must be a Q-ship, which was little more than an armed freighter. Looking at the outside of the Q-ship, he saw a pair of guns stivking out from it, but they looked like anti-fighter sized weapons, so although they could damage or even destroy one of the raiders, the carrier was another issue entirely.  
"Everyone, pay attention. We've got a Q-ship moving up from the rear. What we're going to do is turn, placing ourselves side on to it, and slowly come up beside it. While we're coming up beside it, the carrier will jump in and start hammering it. As long as we stay barely outside its weapons range, the crew will fixate on us, and the carrier will take them by surprise." There was a lot of grumbling among the Raiders, as they knew a Q-ship could be dangerous, but they also knew the importance of getting rid of Q-ships that they knew of, so they wouldn't have to worry about them later.  
  
The Imperial crew watched the Raiders slowly come in, and begin angling to one side. Refusing to play their game, the Imperials kept moving towards the damaged freighter, trying to bring it inside the range of their guns. Once it was inside the range of their guns, the Raiders would have to come to them if they wanted to steal. Still, there had been a larger vessel with the group, and it was not visible now. Where was it?  
  
The carrier crew heard the report, and smiled. Their vessel had enough firepower to handle a Q-ship, especially one that didn't know about the ambush coming up. Proceeding to the pre-arranged coordinates, they opened up a jump point, and darted through, looking for the Q-ship. Suddenly blasts struck the ship from one side, and alarms all over the ship began ringing out.  
  
The turbolasers had been trained on minimum time response settings, so no matter which way a ship showed up, the guns could be swung to attack it within a quarter second. That setting worked perfectly, and both guns had begun aiming towards the carrier as soon as the jump point had been detected. When the vessel had emerged, the guns had gone to single shot mode and opened fire. These were not low-power anti-fighter settings, these were full-power blasts, designed not for surgery but for slaughter. Imperial general attitude towards pirates was along the lines of shoot them all, and interrogate the survivors, if any.  
  
The Raider leader gasped in shock as the carrier suddenly began to sag to one side, with atmosphere streaming from it. His thoughts moved quickly, and his first order was, "Attack!" The others had been shocked as well by the sheer violence of the weapons used, but they were conditioned to obeying his orders, and all of the fighters accelerated in. The leader knew that the carrier was their only way home without using another jump gate, and they had to attack, otherwise their fancy little fighters would be their coffins.  
  
"Here they come." Those three words, over the intercom net for the Imperials were only a sign of how calm they were. Their turbolasers had savaged the larger vessel that tried to ambush them, and now there were twenty nine little fighters coming in. Settings on their guns were changed back to anti-fighter mode, and the gunners watched as the little craft tried to dodge and weave as they came in. But their targeting scanners were accustomed to fighters moving far faster and maneuvering even wilder than the ones coming in, and the two gunners began firing into the cloud, trying to take out as many as they could before they were surrounded. Also, if the Raiders decided they were going to die anyway, they might decide to try to take out the other freighter, accepting their own destruction in the process.  
  
The Raiders came in, ignoring the loss of six of their own in the first firing pass, and every one of them opened fire and hit the Imperial freighter, signs that even if people called them pirates, they were still very good shots. Even so, the freighter was equipped with shields that were designed to handle megaton yield explosions, and the little ion bolts were nothing but pinpricks to them.  
As they went past on their firing run, the leader looked at his display and swore. There had been almost no damage indicated on his plot, and one fifth of his fighters were gone! He was about to give the order to break off when a turbolaser bolt plucked him out of the sky, removing the Raiders' coordination. Their last orders had been to destroy that Q-ship, and they turned around, bringing their weapons back on target.  
  
The ventral gunner had been noticing that the pirate fighters were dying very quickly with each shot, and changed a small setting on his turbolasers. Instead of packeting the plasma for long-range shots, the targeting computer would get the range of the closest target in the sight picture, and set the plasma packet to lose containment at that range. Within four shots, another twelve fighters were disabled by him, and he relayed the tactic to the dorsal gunner. A quick modification, several more volleys of weapons fire, and all the Raiders were badly damaged or destroyed. There were no survivors.  
Now it was time to rescue the other freighter. The two who would be performing the boarding action got their white battle armor on, and all parts of it gave a green light. The Imperial freighter scanned the target, and found the two remaining, but fading, life signs. The medbot was prepped, and they docked to the freighter, airlock to airlock, and began cycling the lock to get through. The two would still follow Imperial boarding precautions, but their weapons were set to stun, as they were rescuing, not attacking.  
  
Sarah heard the thump of a ship attaching to the airlock, and slowly pulled herself free of Scott. She knew what would happen now, to a young woman like her, and she bared her teeth. Whoever was in that vessel would not get her easily, or cheaply, and she grabbed a length of pipe that had broken off nearby. Part of it was sharp, and it cut her hand, but she knew that any pain from that would be mild compared to if they took her alive. She watched the airlock carefully, intending to attack the first person that came through. Gone was a young woman who wanted to just relax and enjoy life when she could. The only thing left in her mind was a need to defend herself, to the death if necessary.  
  
Lieutenant Molda tensed right before he opened the door. There was no exact way of telling what the interior of the ship was like, so he oriented himself with the freighter he was about to go aboard, and carefully opened the hatch. His magnetic and gravitic soles in his boots would let him keep his footing, even in null-G, so he carefully eased the hatch open, and swept the interior with his helmet's senses.  
  
Sarah saw the hatch open, and almost moved right then. But the hatch stopped after a moment, and she saw what looked like a white insect's head peer around for a moment. It looked around the room for a moment, then settled on her for a few seconds. Without gravity, she was floating in midair, and could easily see the bridge through the open hatch. She held onto the ladder, planning to use launch herself from it when she attacked the intruders. Watching carefully, she saw the creature move forwards into the bridge, and began walking around. A second appeared a few seconds later, and it sealed the hatch behind. She was now alone on her ship with two white insects walking around in it. Walking? There was no gravity here, so how could they be walking on the ship's decks and walls? Looking at them closer, she saw what appeared to be something dark in their hands, and after a brief moment, she figured they must be holding guns, though these guns looked nothing like the modern PPGs all Earthforce personnel were equipped with. Still, if she could surprise them, she might have a chance.  
  
Molda watched the woman carefully. The person near her had a low body temperature, and was probably going into shock, while her heart rate was going up. Not only that, but there appeared to be a metal bar in one hand, which could be used as a weapon. Although it would not penetrate his armor, the impact could knock him off-balance enough to lose his footing. He passed the warning on to the other engineer, who began moving around to one side of her. If she tried to attack them, she would have to turn to one of them, giving the other enough time to stun her. Briefly he pondered if he should stun her, but decided that since he could survive any attack she could make, to hold off on shooting her. Also, if he aimed his gun at her, it might set her off.  
  
Sarah watched as the two insects separated. The first one seemed the most dangerous, as it was always watching the crevices, but turning back to her quickly. The other seemed to be concentrating more on Scott, but was also keeping an eye on her. Seeing no better chance, she let out a yell and attacked.  
  
Molda almost sighed as she finally attacked. Unfortunately, she was too close to properly aim the blaster pistol, se he settled for simply blocking her swing with one forearm, and knocking her out with the other fist. Settling back down, he saw blood begin to seep from the hand where she had been holding the piece of metal, and gently pried her fingers open. Seeing the cuts there, and the edges of the metal pipe gleaming red, he sprayed a fast-acting healer, and called for the med droid to be sent through to take care of anything serious. When the other engineer reported the fractured legs the other person had, he immediately swapped with him, telling the medbot to take care of the broken legs.  
Searching the rest of the ship, he found two more bodies, but they were long past any help he could give. Finishing up his inspection, he began moving to the different sections, using his armor's computer and sensors to tell him if there were any serious leaks. There were a couple in the engine room, and he used his armor's sealant to close them up.  
The commander sent the report back to the main Imperial base, and then donned his own space suit, intending to see what sort of items were in the cargo holds. After all, if they wanted to make items that were not too far from what was currently available, it would be best to look at the actual items themselves. He looked inside two of the containers, and found they were empty, but the last four were very informative. The equipment inside was little more than combustion engine farm equipment, designed to run on any liquid fuel. The computer systems were simple, and very slow compared to items he was used to. Getting a hunch, he went back inside the attacked freighter, and began to experiment with the computer. After half an hour, his suspicions were confirmed. 'By the Emperor, is all of their technology this low? If so, then our ships are so far in advance that there is nothing that can harm us even with a numerical advantage.'  
  
Several hours later, Sarah awoke to the feeling of gravity, and straps holding her down. Bolting upright in the bed, she saw that her wrists had been tied to the handrails on either side of the bed, but there was a definite sensation of gravity. She looked around, and saw Scott lying on a bed nearby, with what looked like a cast and nutrient bath on his legs where they had been broken. He was snoring slightly, and she relaxed slightly. Whoever was doing this had actually tried to heal him, where slavers would have simply killed him and taken her only. But the sensation of gravity was unusual. The room looked like the medical room on board the Barenica, but the Barenica did not have any form of gravity, and would probably break apart if it tried to land, let alone take off. So they must be on a ship or station with gravity, only there were no stations within a couple days of where they were.  
"So you're awake," came from her left.  
She glared over at the source of the voice, but softened a little when she saw the human face. "Who are you? Where are we? What happened?"  
"First, my name is Verro, and I am in charge here. What is your name?"  
"S-Sarah. I was the assistant to the Barenica." At the slight eyebrow raise she explained, "the freighter. Last thing I remember is being on board the Barenica and under attack by dozens of raiders, when a couple of white insects came on board."  
Verro paused for a moment, then chuckled. He reached around a corner, and pulled out a helmet. "White insects that had heads like this?" At the gasp of shock, he continued. "We saw your freighter under attack, and decided to help. We disposed of the Raiders, and blew away their command ship as well. After that, we docked to your ship and decided to see if there was anyone we could help. Instead, we found you. You tried to attack one of my troops, even though he was in far better shape, was wearing armor, and has had over ten years of combat experience and hand to hand training. I think you overestimated your chances."  
"I think I remember trying to not be captured. The rest was pure adrenalin. By the way, how long am I going to be a prisoner here?"  
"Prisoner?"  
She motioned to the straps holding her down.  
"Ah. One moment." Verro moved over, and undid the binders that were holding her to the bed. She pulled up her wrists, taking the opportunity to rub some circulation back into her hands. Peeking under the sheets, she saw that she was wearing a light hospital robe, and looked at Verro with a glare. "Your clothes were covered with blood from your crewmate, and we decided to have them washed. They have been ready for the past few hours, and we were merely waiting for you to wake up."  
"Well, good, because I-" Her train of thought suddenly shifted tracks. "Um, you said my clothes were washed and have been waiting for the past few hours. Either it takes a really long time for you to wash clothes, or there is a bigger story that I haven't guessed yet. First, am I on board a space station or planet somewhere?"  
Verro nodded. Not only was she thinking, she was thinking along lines that were very dangerous to the imperial presence. But if they could use her as the interface between the Imperial fleet and the locals, she would be perfect. Smiling, he said, "You are not on board either."  
"Am I on board a ship? If so, I would like a tour."  
"You are on board a ship, and as far as tours, it looks very similar to yours on the inside."  
"Then this is either a top secret EarthForce ship, or an alien ship. The Barenica doesn't have gravity of its own, and in order to generate gravity, you either need an advanced technology, or to use the engines to force one standard G on the passengers and crew. So, which is it?"  
"Neither. This is not an Earthforce ship, but it is a human-built ship," Verro said with a smile. The look of surprise on her face was priceless. He knew he was in a superior negotiating position now, as admitting that the Imperial forces needed her would eventually turn the table. The question now, could he reel her in without scaring her?  
Sarah began thinking hard at that answer. It wasn't an Earth military ship, but it was built by humans; that was impossible! But here she was, in gravity, on board a vessel that was human built. So obviously some private company had been testing something new in the way of gravity generation, and had merely been in the right place and the right time to assist, or actually, to save her life. The funny part about that was all the items here looked designed to be used in a weighted environment. On an Earthforce ship, there would be tie downs, restraining loops, and similar items to hold equipment in case they lost gravity. But all of the equipment and fastenings here looked as though they took artificial gravity as a way of life.  
Looking back at him, "I still want a tour. After that, we can talk further."  
Verro nodded. The tour was the best he could get now, and should create more questions than answers.  
  
After an hour, where Sarah looked into crevices, and spotted several things different, but didn't spot the important things, she turned on Verro again. "All right. Overall, it looks like you did a decent job of copying the Barenica, but there are a few things different. First, the computer is far faster than I am used to. Second, several of the data cables are missing. Either you routed them differently, or the single cable I saw is carrying all of the necessary data. The engine room is the proper size, but I haven't been able to figure out where you stored the weaponry. You said you blew away the Raiders, so that means weapons. Since I don't see them inside the ship, they must be on the outside, but the fact that the Raiders attacked you keeps part of that from being true. They would have looked at the outside of your ship, and any large weapons would have been a dead giveaway. So obviously your weapons must have either been small, in which case you couldn't have destroyed the Raiders very quickly, or they are in the cargo containers."  
A quick trip outside for a look inside the cargo containers shot that theory down. Telling Sarah that they had engaged the Raiders and destroyed all thirty fighters and their mothership within a minute took out her other theory.  
When they got back inside, Sarah had even more questions, but Verro interrupted her. "First, we have been examining your manifest, and it says you are carrying farm equipment, and are headed towards a certain colony; Mandelin 4, I believe. Is this a regular run for a company, or a personal run where the Captain/owner of the ship decides what cargoes to haul?"  
"This is a little of both, as the colony lost most of its engineers when they initially arrived. A locally derived oil had a minor bug in it, and most of the engineers who spent their time around it caught enough of the bug, and they died off. Everyone else has developed an immunity to it, and the colony essentially imports farm equipment and exports food. Without engineers and advanced technology, the colony would grow only one third the food, and the company I work for uses that advantage. The colonists grow food and sell it at standard prices, and buy advanced machinery to help them expand their fields, and replace what gets broken. There is one colony nearby that buys food from them, and the colony is also three jumps away from Babylon 5, so the parts an be easily bought there, and the food sold is either eaten on the station itself, or other merchants come there to buy it." A slight part of her noticed the two sparks of attention, the first was when she had mentioned that the colony needed engineers, and the second was when she had mentioned Babylon 5.  
"In either case, we have to stick to a strict schedule, and with the amount of time you have spent showing me around, we are several hours late. I hope we can get to the jump gate on time for our position, so we don't have to wait for an empty slot."  
"I think that can be taken care of. We also took the liberty of downloading your navigational database, and your route. But we want something from you."  
"What."  
"We want you to negotiate the appropriate prices from the local merchants. We have a good idea of the prices from your records as well, but we also want to see any special interactions that might be required."  
That was when it hit her. These people were definitely not from around here. She would now have to watch them, to see if they were a threat to Earth. But it would be best to play along for now. "All right then. I'll do the trade negotiations for you."  
"Another thing. We have some equipment of our own we would like to sell to them as well, but to avoid putting a glut on the market, we'll only be selling a couple of them. Would you like to examine one of them to determine a good price?"  
"I'll try." She was shown one of the items. It was little more than a standard plow set, but the size and weight of it intrigued her. The size was similar to the ones she was selling, but it weighed only a third as much. In addition, the metal was slightly thinner than normal, and had a universal attachment system that allowed it to be attached to almost any plow rig that was used. "Not bad at all. I'd probably sell it for only twenty percent more, as the universal settings look like they would wear out quickly, and the metal itself, being thin, might indicate weakness to someone who isn't familiar with your technology. Do you have any more like this?"  
"We have nine more, but any others would have to be almost custom made. We don't really use anything that outdated where we come from." The last sentence was said with a smile, and Sarah really began to wonder what she had gotten herself into.  
But remembering the schedule, she looked up, "Shouldn't we be getting on our way to the jump gate? If we're late, it will throw off everything!"  
Smiling, Verro motioned her to a window. Looking out the window, she could see stars slowly moving by. "We're accelerating at over 5 Gs right now, and that will provide us with plenty of time to get to the jump gate. And even if we are late, we still won't have to worry about a delay in jumping into hyperspace."  
A slow moan escaped from her lips. She had been standing still, and she had known she was still, but in reality this freighter had been accelerating at a level twice the Barenica's maximum speed. Not only that, but what had he meant by not having to worry about losing their place? Unless this ship had its own jump engine! But that was impossible! Jump engines were huge things, and the Quantium-40 required to run a jump engine made them expensive too. It was far cheaper buying the jump gates for an internal commercial network than buying jump engines for every little freighter that would go from world to world.  
"Is this freighter the usual sort here you come from Verro?"  
"Actually, no." Sarah smiled. Maybe it was possible the Earth Alliance, or somebody here had an advantage over these new humans. "A normal freighter of this size would normally land to off-load cargo, instead of using ground to space shuttles. But we included that feature in the construction, so if the shuttles cannot make it to us, we can go to the landing field."  
Her smile disappeared. 'Land! They would land this ship! But wait, what did he mean by a freighter of this size? Did he imply that there are freighters even larger!' "How big is the biggest freighter where you come from?" Sarah asked, while dreading the answer.  
"I'll tell you, after we get off the planet. Who knows, I might also show you where the weapons are. They are still on board this ship."  
Sarah's time until they arrived at the planet was full of exploration, trying to find the weapons. She stopped in on Scott, to see how he was doing, and to relay what she had learned so far. His expressions and doubt mirrored hers, and they began to wonder just who these people were.  
  
Arriving at Mandelin 4, Sarah conducted the trade smoothly, discussing prices on the way in with the different farmers, and offering prices on the farm equipment. She even showed the first of the universal joint plows, and one of the farmers finally made her an offer, but it was only ten percent above the standard offer. Deciding not to press him too much, she finalized the official deals, and personally signed for the universal joint plow.  
The shuttles again rendezvoused with the freighter, the cargo was transferred, and the freighter left orbit again, ready to ply its way across the space lanes. Sarah, of course, was immediately demanding to see what they had meant by the weapons still being on board, and no need to worry about not getting to the jump gate on time. Verro calmly asked her to wait, as he wanted to make sure they were not close enough to be observed. They exited through the jump gate normally, and were back in hyperspace.  
When the time was right, he asked Sarah to move a certain lever, and the familiar vortex of a jump point opened in front of them, and the Imperial freighter moved through it. Sarah was looking at the stars in front of them in shock. "That's not possible! It takes far more energy than the Barenica produces in a year to open a jump point, the equipment for it would take up half the ship, and it requires Quantium-40, which is extremely rare and expensive, to do so. How did-" Her question was cut off as she looked at the expressions around her. They had been smiling as she had mention the first items, but when she mentioned Quantium-40, their expressions had gone puzzled.  
"What exactly is Quantium-40," asked Verro.  
"Quantium-40 is the material used to make jump gates or jump engines. I don't know if it is an element or molecule, as the name could be either one, but without it, jump point travel becomes almost impossible. I think I remember reading somewhere that one group tried a simulation of opening a jump point without it, and the power requirements went off the chart. It would take as much power as Earth produced in over twenty years to open a jump point without Quantium-40. But you did it, without the stuff, so that means . . ." Her voice trailed off as her shock threshold took another hit.  
"We have slightly better power plants on board this freighter than the Barenica did." Verra said that with a smile. "By the way, you wanted to see the weapons?"  
Sarah nodded jerkily, not sure how much more she could take. After she was led outside, and she saw the turbolasers deploy from what would be parts of the engine, she was very quiet. She just walked back inside, back to the med bay where Scott was resting, and she snuggled under the covers with him. He woke up, startled at her reaction, but when she just asked him to hold her, he did. He didn't know what was going on, but he could hold her now. Chances were, when he found out the reason, he'd want her to hold him in return.  
Later on, he did.  
But cuddled in that room, Sarah missed the jump to hyperspace, which would have shocked her even beyond where she was right then. Fortunately, for her remaining sanity, she didn't see where she arrived either, as the Eclipse or the World Devastators might have proven too much. What she didn't know, at that time, was that the Barenica had been brought here, and had been repaired by the Imperial technicians. It was now waiting for them, but there was a special price to pay for it.  
  
"You want me to what?"  
"We want you to take two members of our crew on board your freighter, and essentially train them to act normally around others. They will help on board your ship, as a bridge officer and one operating the engine room as well. Of course, in order to properly train them, you will need to have one person on duty with each of you at all times.  
"You will get your ship back, and we did include a couple of extras. The external appearance and arrangement is identical to what the Barenica was before, but we did include the armor on the inside, and increased the strength of the windows as well. Even if a raiding force the same size as the others attacks, you will be able to withstand them for at least ten minutes. We also included a simple distress beacon on board, and there will be six fighters deployed near you at all times.  
"The internal bracing has been improved as well, so even if something hits the ship, there won't be any seams popped by it. The engine has also been upgraded, but you can always throttle back to the previous settings in case you need to deceive someone.  
"The cargo pods are the same material as the ones as you originally used, so in case they don't make it back, there is no leak."  
"Do I get to have those same weapons, jump engine, and power plant as last time?"  
"For weapons, we decided no. The fittings are easy to miss in space, but if you are transferring cargo, there will be people getting very close to the hull, and they might spot the opening. The jump engine is downgraded to the standard vortex type, and the power plant is a very efficient version of fusion engine. Since they are so small, we included a second one in there, but only one at a time is needed to run the ship. When you want to create your own jump points, just bring the second engine on-line, and the power will be there. Also, another reason to run with one plant only is if anyone tries to do a neutrino count, the two engines would show an obvious difference, while with one engine only it is barely noticeable.  
"Of course, if you try to use all the advanced features on it openly, there will be lots of people who will want to know where you got such a ship, or will try various ways to take it from you. Eventually, we will start selling ships similar to these, or even ally with the local human government, but not just yet."  
"Well, if you want to know a little about Earth, then let me tell about what has been happening recently." Sarah then went on to explain the recent occurrences, such as the recent death of President Santiago, the succession of Vice President Clark to President, and the recent problems with Mars riots. There had been some people who were concerned with the rapid transfer of power, but Clark's new Ministries had been doing a good job of helping to calm people down. Overall, it seemed as though Clark was trying to get rid of any alien influence, and was closing off earth access to the other alien races in order to do so. He was also using the Nightwatch to make sure there were no potential sympathizers or subversives within human controlled areas as well.  
The Imperial officers recognized many of the signs. New departments set up by a new leader, plus the relatively untrained secret police being wielded were not signs of a sane and secure mind. It would be necessary to 'change' leadership on Earth soon. But they had to do it quietly, as otherwise the Earth humans would rally around Clark and try to resist. It would be necessary to contact someone who would be more open to them, and encourage them to start defying President Clark. They would have to be careful though, as open defiance might drive him into a corner. But, if they drove him into a corner before the rest of Earth was ready, then their candidate would be capable of winning, and the Imperials would have a secure ally in the Earth Alliance, as it was called. There would be problems, such as the Mars complaints, but they could be far more easily solved, as most of those complaints were over the taxes needed to support Earth and them. With advanced technology, costs for shipping goods could be dropped, and advanced terraforming technology would allow Mars to expand rapidly.  
But meeting with that representative would have to be careful as well. A high-level government person couldn't just go over to an empty place and meet with them. The representative would have to meet with a known group, say, an Earth colony. If representatives from that colony were to request a meeting, with Imperial personnel there, and a few pieces of technology, it would be possible to explain to that person what was required of them. Once the technology was analyzed, their identities would be verified, and the potential offered would be the final coin to convince the representative that the Imperial policy would be a good one to follow. The Imperials would still need to review the various people there, and decide who to approach eventually.  
But that was what the mission would be for. The two people going were chosen for their ability to keep their eyes open and their mouths shut, and, as stormtrooper trained personnel, would be more than capable of taking down anyone they met. The two selected had trained against Wookies for strength, Noghri for speed, and many other races in order to make the best possible advantage out of anything they met.  
The four people boarded the Barenica, and set out for Babylon 5, intending to sell the food and learn as much as possible. Of course, it would be necessary for them to get identicards at Babylon 5, but a cover story had already been prepared. 


	5. N'Grath

Hope this chapter keeps you happy Eria.   
  
Back at the battle site, a World Devastator moved in. Governor Velholm had decided to adopt a 'no witnesses, no evidence' policy, to avoid drawing attention to themselves. As a result, after any battle that the Imperial forces engaged in, a World Devastator would go in, collect the debris, and leave. The material collected was a fraction compared to what it could normally consume, but the evidence of their technology could not be revealed, at least not yet.  
  
And so the World Devastator made its lonely rounds, scanning space and collecting debris, erasing any evidence of a battle there. Some of the debris was kept intact for intelligence purposes, but the rest was fed into the storage cells for later use.  
  
***  
  
At Babylon 5 though, some of the recent Imperial handiwork was being noticed. N'Gath listened to the reports from his people, and was curious. The raiding group had been provided with a jump-capable vessel to allow them far more flexibility in choosing their targets, but there had been no word from them yet. The last message received from them had told how they were going to attack a pair of freighters in the target zone. He had done the research and found that one freighter would be passing through the target zone, with lots of high-tech equipment on board, and some farming equipment. All of it could be sold fairly easily, and so he had sent the data along.  
  
But the raiders had reported 2 freighters in the target zone, and they hadn't been heard from since. He began sending instructions, demanding shipping routes of freighters passing through or near the region. Whatever had happened to his raiders had cost him several months worth of profit, and that meant he wanted to find out everything.  
  
***  
  
The Barenica and its unusual crew arrived at the jump point for Babylon 5 and gently came through. Sarah looked out the window, enjoying the traffic there, and seeing so many ships. The Imperial on duty saw the ships out there, and stared, more to keep up appearances than actually be impressed. Deciding to see what her reaction was, he asked, "Why are you looking out there?"  
  
"Have you ever seen so many ships before in your life?"  
  
"Plenty of times. Outposts, small worlds, fleet exercises. I've seen small groups of ships like this plenty of times. Most of the time though, I see more. Now at Coruscant, Kuat Drive Yards, Sienar Fleet Production centers, the Sluis Van shipyards, or others, a bunch of ships like these would not even be noticed."  
  
Sarah stared at him some more. 'Over a dozen freighters and shuttles is nothing compared to those places according to him! Sheesh!' "Whoah. But still, according to the background story, you are a low-tech worker who is in space for maybe the third time in his life, and have seen at most one or two ships. Seeing this many ships would be a spectacle."  
  
Grinning, he resumed looking out the window, while a small recorder continued to take images, for later review. Both Imperials had them, and the data within them continued to pile up. For further data gathering, both of them also had data crystal converters. The items could read from a standard data crystal, and could store information at higher compressions than was available. What they would do, once they were on board, was to get access to information centers, and start downloading information. Although it would have been easier to simply build an attachment that would fit in a crystal slot, the sight of a computer linking directly into a crystal slot would have drawn far too much attention. Instead, they had a pair of data crystals, and while one was recording information, the other would be downloading the information to their recorders.  
  
***  
  
A tech on duty noticed the first hacking attempt. The automatic safeguards were able to kick the person out quickly, while recording where the attack had been from. The attack pattern was recorded, showing the rough memory center that had been attempted. It was listed on the senior technician's notification board, and he just looked at it and deleted it.  
  
The second hacking attempt was a little subtler. It began with a small probe into the shipping records, but with a modification. Normally, people could search based on company or destination. But N'Grath's contract had specified all ships in a certain region during a certain time, and that wasn't available to people normally. So the program began to download information on all the freighters, and the hacker could work on that data later. The extended time and the extensive information requested began triggering low-level alerts, and another technician on duty noticed it as a program running for a longer time. Setting up a program to monitor the download, she called her boss over, and they began to backtrack the person.  
  
A third hacking attempt was also made. With one group focusing on any other freighters that might be in the area, and the raiders destroyed, this hacker figured that a military vessel might have been nearby. So she began hacking into the military database, trying to see if any ships had been near the area in question.  
  
But military databases are a little more sensitive to hacking attempts, and this one triggered an alarm. The senior technician began an immediate trace on the source, as well as running a slow-down program, designed to simulate a large program at work to the hacker. With the hacker getting slowed down by the program, it would buy additional time for security to close in on the hacker's position.  
  
***  
  
She noticed that her program was slowing down, and did a quick scan of the system. It showed only a few programs running, but nothing of the size needed for that kind of slowdown to occur. It took her a few seconds to think, and she told the system to stop, and hurriedly disconnected. Dashing away from the socket, she managed to dart through a door barely a minute before the security team arrived.  
  
***  
  
Garibaldi heard about the incident the next morning in his usual report. It seemed there had been three hacking attempts into the system database, all of which were obsessed with a certain area. Figuring that whatever they were interested in would be interesting to him too, he began calling up information on that region.  
  
After several hours of going over the information, he concluded that the region was boring, with nothing out there to interest anyone. Still, why would the hackers have attempted the attacks unless there was something going on? He sighed.  
  
"Time to pay a visit to N'Grath."  
  
***  
  
The Barenica arrived at the zero-G loading dock, and the cargo pods full of food were transferred off and sold, and several pallets of electronic equipment and farming tools were loaded. Seeking permission for a couple days R&R, Sarah was able to put the Barenica in an extended orbit, and waited for a small shuttle to circle around the various ships for transferring people to and from the station. Since there was the need for the Imperial personnel to get their identicards, Sarah and Scott would be on different shifts, as usual.  
  
It took several minutes for the two to get their new cards, as the standard questions simply could not be answered effectively. Where they were born, their parents' names, where they went to school, all had to be skipped or lied to on the list. Their cover story was eventually accepted, that they had grown up on a small colony, and had transferred from one place to another, working a lot and learning a little at all of them. With their previous stop being a non-technic location, it was easy to falsify the trail there.  
  
Eventually, new identicards were issued in their names, and the two Imperials began their slow and steady exploration of the station. Their first stop was a small bar, where the credits they had earned from the few days travel on the ship were spent on a few small drinks, and a data crystal of current events. Going to a computer, they would plug the first data crystal in, and ask for a certain topic. When that crystal was full, they would exchange, and go after more of the same topic, if not finished, or another topic. Since they were asking for commonly available topics, their activities went unnoticed by the security programs. They had arranged to borrow some money from Sarah, and spent it on the usual tourist souvenirs, but they also bought a recent copy of Jan'th's Fighting Starships, and a map showing the different empires and their main colonies and production centers. They also bought a news compilation of the past year, and when the person looking at them asked, they said they wanted some reading material for the long trips.  
  
After several hours, they finally filled up the memories of their portable recorders, and it was time for the Barenica to leave again. Per previous agreements, Sarah and Scott had the same watch, while the Imperials had their watch so they could compare information. Going over the information, they observed how President Clark wasn't as popular as would seem at first, and that the riots on Mars had 'enjoyed' a long history. Looking further, they saw how the key problems on Mars were the lack of useful farmland on the planet (not surprising, considering that everyone had to live in domes), and the high costs for shipping items from Earth to Mars.  
  
Sarah and Scott though, while cuddling in a hammock, were asking other questions. Were they betraying Earth by letting these Imperials get the information they wanted was the key question. They knew that they owed their lives to the Imperials, but the power wielded by the Imperials scared both of them. Although they knew President Clark was trying to isolate Earth, they had made some good friends and trading partners among the other alien races. But which was worse, the potential of Clark as President, isolating Earth, or these unknown humans, with their super technology? That question would haunt them on their trips.  
  
***  
  
"Am not spy. I do legitimate business."  
  
"Look N'Grath, this isn't getting us anywhere. We both know that if it makes a profit you're in it, and ten times out of ten its illegal. Also if you didn't do this, then you would know who did. Now I am asking you again, why were there hacking attempts into the Bab5 mainframe? Hacking into the civilian freight lines wasn't that bad, but hacking into military databases we tend to frown on around here."  
  
"Have no knowledge of any of those. If you have no honest business with me, leave."  
  
Sighing, Garibaldi walked away. He knew N'Grath was behind what was going on, but he couldn't prove it. Walking over to a nearby bar, Garibaldi sat down and ordered a drink. He still had no idea what was going on behind those hacks, and N'Grath wouldn't give out any information. That usually meant whatever had happened was really illegal, even for N'Grath, or N'Grath didn't know about it at all. From past experience, he bet it was the former, and that N'Grath was hiding something that was really dangerous to him.  
  
Noticing someone looking at him across the bar, Garibaldi did a two-finger signal. To anyone else there, it merely looked like he was signaling for his tab and he was ready to leave, but to his informants, it meant that he would be in the number 2 location for talking. His body language as he left would tell the time to meet as well.  
  
Getting up and leaving, Garibaldi arrived at the location. After waiting fifteen minutes as he had requested, the informant came out.  
  
"What do you have?"  
  
"I know why the hacks took place."  
  
"Tell me what you know."  
  
"Well, I heard it from a friend who overheard it in a bar-"  
  
"As usual, now what happened?"  
  
"Apparently N'Grath financed a jump-capable vessel to be used for Raider attacks. This was the third time it had been used. The commander reported that they were going in to attack 2 freighters at a certain location. They haven't been heard from since."  
  
"You mean they haven't reported back to here or were captured elsewhere, right?"  
  
"No, I mean they have not been heard from anywhere. No reports from other sources, no arrest broadcasts, nothing. It's as though they vanished into a black hole."  
  
"Do you have the location?"  
  
"Here."  
  
"Thanks. Here are some credits. If this is important, I might have some more credits."  
  
"Can you tell me what you find?"  
  
"I'll try to pass a message back, next time we meet."  
  
"I understand."  
  
Garibaldi turned and left, his parting words telling the informant to meet him in the number four location in one day.  
  
***  
  
N'Grath listened with pleasure. The person who had wanted to talk to Garibaldi was also one of his agents, and had passed along the information properly. His own investigations had been halted, and he had resorted to sneakier methods of doing an investigation. This method was particularly elegant, if a bit unreliable. By having Garibaldi carry out the investigation, he would not be at risk, and far more data would be available. Everything had been set up properly, as even the message crystal carried nothing but the coordinates and the time frame.  
  
Some had suggested putting a worm or Trojan horse program in it, but N'Grath had stopped them. If Garibaldi began to suspect that his informant also worked for N'Grath, then that channel would be closed off. He had worked hard to get that channel set up, and he intended to use it for as long as possible.  
  
Letting himself do a light chuckle, N'Grath relaxed in the pleasure of a plan working properly.  
  
***  
  
Garibaldi returned to his office, and began to go over the data on the crystal. It was simply a file containing hyperspace coordinates, the matching realspace coordinates, and a time frame. Calling up his own investigation that he had down before, he compared the two sets of information. Looking over the data, it showed that there was a single freighter passing through the area during the time the vanishing occurred.  
  
But that was unusual, as his contact had said the raiders had targeted two freighters before they had disappeared. Could they have been caught by another security patrol? He sent out requests to other stations nearby, asking if any of them had managed to arrest any jump-capable vessels that were supporting raiders. He also sent a message to Captain Sheridan, asking for any information on EarthForce ship movements through the selected region during the time frame indicated. The space was too far from the other governments, and the Vorlons wouldn't care about anything like a raider attack. So the obvious options were either Earthforce, or someone else.  
  
***  
  
It took several hours for the reports to come in, but he finally put it all together, and the result was nothing. There were no reports on other arrests, and no reports on any EarthForce ships in the area. Sending his reports to Ivanova, he asked for a fighter patrol of the region. Surprisingly, he found out a fighter patrol had just returned from the area, and had found nothing. No anomalies, no wreckage, nothing. The whole region was a perfectly normal system, except for the fact that it had apparently managed to swallow up a raider force with a jump ship transport.  
  
He met with his contact the next day, and gave him some more credits, and shared with him the information he had learned. Several of the conversations in the bar had died down a little, as quite a few people had friends who had been in the raiding group. Hearing the Babylon 5 security chief tell the contact that nothing had been found at all of either arrests or debris made them a little nervous. Their own connections would spread the word, letting other raiders know that something was out there.  
  
Garibaldi returned to his office, and kept thinking on the subject some more. If N'Grath hadn't heard about it from his sources, that meant it had to be a strike with extremely tight security on it. But his sources within Earthgov hadn't heard anything either, so that meant a top secret project had attacked a group of pirates, or someone else had. If it was another race, then why were they trying to get into Earth space? More importantly, if this attack had occurred, why wasn't there any wreckage? Unless they had a cosmic vacuum cleaner, there would have been wreckage floating around.  
  
***  
  
N'Grath heard the report hours later, and was even more puzzled. If none of his contacts had found out anything, and none of the official contacts had found anything, then obviously something else was out there. He had heard of associates and someone called Morden helping some races, but an attack on Raiders seemed below their status, unless the associates were simply trying to take over part of Earth Alliance space.  
  
But the total lack of wreckage was different. According to his information on the associates, they would attack, but the debris would be left behind afterwards. This time it was like the vessel and the raiders had disappeared into a black hole. Briefly he considered the Vorlons, but they simply didn't care about minor things like privateering for an independent group (his name for piracy). So there was someone else out there.  
  
***  
  
Not knowing the mild hornet's nest they managed to stir up, the Imperial fleet begins to head towards Mandelin 4, planning to offer them a first exchange of technology. They had seen what the ground-to-space shuttles looked like, and had built a couple using full Imperial technology, instead of the primitive hydrogen fusion systems. Jumping in, a shuttle was released, and began heading towards the colony. Initial alarms and concerns over an unannounced arrival were dampened slightly when one of the Imperial officers had come on line and requested permission to land. The concern had been a bunch of pirates sending in vessels to plunder the colony, but the familiar sight of a human in uniform aboard a human shuttle had calmed them down. The did notice that the uniform seemed a little different, but as they had only seen the officer from the neck up, a brief image of a collar is not enough to raise suspicions.  
  
Arriving at the planet, Commander Valeyin requested a meeting with Governor Brogin. She was happy to meet with someone, as one of the farmers had been trying to pressure her for more of some miracle plow that he had bought. As near as she could figure from his ranting and bragging, he had bought the plow assembly for slightly higher than normal, but it was performing better than anything else he used. It was lighter, making it easier to move, and the universal joints on it allowed him to attach it to anything he wanted. Glad of a reason to not listen to his drunk ranting and raving, she scheduled the meeting for a half hour.  
  
Commander Valeyin met with Governor Brogin, and outlined what they would like to exchange. The meeting was a bit of a surprise for the Governor, who suddenly found herself in the position of negotiating a trade agreement with a human empire of vastly higher technology. She tried gentle inquiries of where they had come from, but those questions were politely rebuffed. The Imperials were intending to make a polite start with the local humans, but if things got rough, they could always use the tried and true methods of brute force. Also, they needed to get a feel for the local rumors and stories before they began designing their cover stories. After all, if they said they were humans who had been kidnapped by aliens in the past, and there had been no rumors about that, then their cover story would be blown.  
  
However, the opportunity presented to the Governor was very nice. The Imperials would upgrade their farm equipment, allowing them to get higher and higher yields of crops, with their genetic technology allowing faster crop growth rates to compensate. Eventually the amount of food produced would exceed the local capability of freighters to carry it away, and her colony would start to export the food to farther locations. With the faster freighters available, they could deliver food to the Sol system for the same cost or even less than Mars colonists would pay for shipping directly from Earth.  
  
But still she was negotiating with an alien race. Commander Valeyin convinced her though, that since they were as human as she was, she wasn't required to contact Earthgov for First Contact specialists. Of course with the technological edge they possessed, any negotiations would be irrelevant. After all, if her assistants leaked out information that she had declined an offer to triple their income, she wouldn't stand a chance at the next election. Hesitatingly, she agreed to the initial exchange of technology. The Imperial forces would provide advanced farming equipment, in exchange for a 50% cut of any crops harvested above normal amounts. Of course, she didn't know that if she had declined, the Imperial ground forces would wipe out her whole colony, but some things were better left unsaid.  
  
For assistance elsewhere, a small repair shop would be installed at the spaceport, with the capability to repair any small craft that came by. The initial result of this was that the aging ground to space shuttles could get the overhaul they needed. It also doubled as a bug implanter, adding microscopic listening devices to the vessels so the Imperials could record various conversations that took place, and run them through a droid filter to get the important items.  
  
Also, in order for the local engineers to use the equipment properly, a set of schools were set up, to train the engineers, and get more information out to the students. Within a couple more days, a small communications relay was set up, allowing the planet to communicate with the Imperial base at Fetoro 3, near the wormhole exit. The communications relay was the first step to setting up the Holonet in this galaxy, and soon it would be possible to communicate anywhere in the galaxy, with no time lag.  
  
As the first constructions began, several people observed them. The shuttles landing were normal enough, but as the facilities were examined, several people gasped at he power requirements and capabilities of the new items. When the first hypermatter reactor was brought on-line, the power plant technicians were shocked when they saw what it was capable of. Even more startling was that the reactor was a little smaller than one of the turbines at the hydroelectric plant, but was producing over ten times the plant's full capacity, and the hypermatter reactor was at idling levels of power. One person tried to imagine the production at full power, but he merely sat there for a few minutes, and gave up.  
  
Among all those people gathering to watch the next piece of technological magic was someone in brown robes, with a certain silver and gem decoration on the inside of his robes. The Ranger had stopped off on the planet to wait for a transfer to another ship, and had seen the proceedings. Unlike the others at the colony, he had a far better idea of what a shuttle's normal performance envelope was, and the time between landings was far shorter than it should be. He began making recordings, and listing times between arrivals. Although he did not know the full impact of these technologies, he knew Entil'za would want the information. He would also pass on the information to Delenn at Babylon 5, for her review as well. Waiting a few days after the repair center and the droids had arrived allowed him to complete the information being gathered, and get a good idea of how effective they were.  
  
Going over to the small communication center, the one that didn't use Imperial technology, he placed a message through to his contact, requesting someone stop by in a standard shuttle to pick up his data crystal. He wanted to stay, to continue to observe what was going on. It would be about a week before a ship stopped by, and he continued his watch, doing odd jobs at the spaceport to keep up his cover, and to keep watching the newcomers. He needed to know if they were allied with the Shadows, or were something else entirely.  
  
***  
  
An independent miner found the first set of clues that something powerful was out there. He had found one system earlier that had possessed a mineral streak fairly near the planet's surface, and had managed to get enough equipment to start digging it out. He had also bought a small refinery, allowing him to carry back rare earth elements in about 50% purity, instead of hauling several thousand pounds of ore to get a few pounds of rare earths. He exited out the jump gate, and began making his way to the planet, preparing to land next to the vein and begin mining for the riches present.  
  
But on the way in, he saw something totally different. Instead of the flat plain he had been expecting, there was a trench across part of it, and the size of the trench startled him. He had been gone for about a month during which he was getting the equipment, and returning, and the trench had occurred during that time. Taking over from the computer, he compared the trench to the rare earths he had detected earlier, and saw that part of the trench had consumed them. Deciding to land in the trench, he carefully fired his reentry jets, watching carefully as the heat corona from reentry formed around his ship, making sure he didn't tumble or lose control, as he would burn up. On the way in, he looked at the trench and wondered what could have caused it.  
  
Landing in the trench, his worst nightmares seemed to pale. He hadn't been able to get a good read from orbit, but sitting in the trench, he was shocked. His ship was fifty feet tall, yet it wasn't even a third of the depth of the trench. Estimating the trench at six hundred feet wide, he brought up the view from space. Measuring roughly, the trench looked to be a little over four hundred miles long.  
  
Fortunately, for him, part of the trench had exposed a rich vein of rare earth ores, and he began loading them up to be carried into the processor, while he would continue his explorations along both ends. He could only think of one thing that could cause a trench like this, and he wanted to find the meteor that had caused it. Setting his ship to warn him if anything came by, he got into a small rover, and began heading off to one end. He hadn't communicated his find yet, as he didn't want any pirates to know that he was all by himself, and getting several hundred thousand credits in rare earths ready for transport. On the way there, he began working out a little math. Normal dirt and rock had a density of around 62.5 pounds per cubic foot. This trench was over 150 feet deep, and over six hundred feet wide. Since it was more like a shallow bowl than a rectangle, a triangular cross-section would work, so that was around 45,000 square feet, times the length of over 400 miles. Converting that to feet, that was 2,112,000 feet. Multiplying the two together, he got around ninety-five billion cubic feet. Multiplying that by the density, he got,  
  
"Six trillion pounds! That's about 3 billion tons of material!"  
  
But the numbers worked out, even if it seemed impossible. Whatever meteor had caused the trench had managed to move three billion tons of material, and that meant it was either fast, large, or both. If it was large, that meant it could contain lots of unusual minerals and elements that could also be sold for money. Unfortunately for that meteor theory, neither of the ends looked like the entry or the end point. Still he would look over both ends, trying to find a meteor that could have done it. After all, the alternative was simply impossible. If someone had done this, they would have had to move three billion tons of material in less than a month.  
  
It was a good thing, for his sanity, that he did not know the material had been moved in three days.  
  
***  
  
Back at Mandelin 4, the construction was going quickly. Pre-fabricated buildings, built by the World Devastator in another system were being assembled quickly. People accustomed to buildings requiring weeks or months to set up watched as the pre-fabricated structures were assembled in mere days. The children ooh'ed and ahh'ed as well, watching the floating droids as they assembled the buildings in quiet harmony. As the facilities were brought on-line, Governor Brogin was invited to tour them. Watching the communications technicians get accustomed to the new systems was enjoyable, as the older equipment used in the previous facility had a habit of breaking down often. The net result had been for the technicians to cobble together an e-mail system, allowing people to send video messages to each other, instead of actually communicating.  
  
The droid repair and construction facility went on-line a day later, and the first farming droids began doing their work. Several farmers were concerned that they would be out of work, but the new schooling systems were available for them to learn new skills, and the droids were allowing people with large plots of land to cultivate all of the area. To prevent soil exhaustion, new fertilizers were being mixed up, and sprayed over the fields. One proposal being discussed was domes for growing the food, effectively converting them into giant greenhouses.  
  
Overall though, the crop yield was increasing steadily, and Governor Brogin was looking at a doubling of their crop production for this harvest, with higher yields for the next harvest. There was some discussion about where to sell the food, and local merchants were being pressed to look for external markets, at distances they would have ignored previously. But Imperial technology had allowed construction of enhanced freighters, and markets that were ignored before were discussed, and the merchants began to divide up the local galaxy between themselves, attempting to corner the local markets. 


	6. Contact!

But one of them had another idea. Since shipping costs were going down, he intended to start a transportation service. Colonies could soon become within the means for ordinary citizens to travel to, instead of requiring government sponsored programs in order to even be feasible. If he could start up a few colonies, while signing an exclusive trade agreement with them, the profits would be far higher in the long run. Even better, if he could have a similar communications center built upon those planets, with a receiver in his ship, he could take orders that the planet needed, and drop off items as he passed by.  
  
Most importantly though, a bank account was being set up for the Imperial forces. With that electronic access to funds, Imperial personnel would get paid (very important), and they could spend their money locally, increasing the cash available to local merchants as well. If communications could be established through the tunnel for continuous contact, the banks located back home and here could be electronically linked, allowing investment by the various corporations back home.  
  
One thing that Governor Brogin and the Imperial forces had insisted upon to the merchants though, was secrecy. If Earth found out about their new freighters before the time was right, then they would probably lose their ships, and be put in custody of the Clark government. Custody in this case would mean they would be locked in a cell and the key would be thrown away. The merchants realized the need for secrecy as well for a different reason, for if anyone else found out about the engines, their monopoly would be lost.  
  
As for Mr. Groden, he realized that if he used his hyperdrive freighter, but went along different routes, then nobody would be able to spot him, and by trading between the colonies that he would set up, he could get from one to the next far faster than normal. In fact, he could even place the colonies on the best possible worlds, instead of settling for various little rock balls and frozen wastelands as current Earth colonization required. Visions of profit gleamed in his eyes, but reality brought him back. He would need to get people who wanted to colonize other planets, but how would he go about doing that without Earthforce security catching him? The only possible option would be to use legitimate sources, but flat-out lying about travel times, and buying the necessary survey information from IPX.  
  
In the meantime, the first freighter left with the food to be sold at the neighboring colony. It was a few months early, and the cargo bays were full, so its arrival would generate a few inquiries, but cover stories had been planned for them as well. The other part of the crops was sent to the Imperial base at Fetoro 3, where most of it would be prepared by the cooks there for consumption, while the rest of it would be geneered into fast growing crops, in order to get sufficient food production going at the colony.  
  
***  
  
Sarah sighed as they completed the last transfer of food to Babylon 5. She had enjoyed the quiet trips recently, as there were no disgusting serenades echoing through the ship. She was still a little unsure about the two Imperials with her, but had been getting more and more accustomed to their presence. They were professional and courteous around her and Scott, and definitely pulled their share of the work on board the ship. Of course, there had been a few messages that came in for their eyes only, but the two of them had been quick to share the information.  
  
When she began to make her first selections from the items to be sold at Mandelin 4, they had advised her to not bother with farm equipment, as the colony had found another source. She looked at him, puzzled, and then did a faint gasp as she realized exactly what he meant. Looking back over her choices to buy, she deleted all the farm equipment, and looked over everything else. High-tech equipment would be out as well, if the Imperials were providing the equipment. Settling on a group of textiles and plant variants, she ordered the items, and watched as they were delivered. The Imperials though, could order a few items of their own, and began selecting a variety of historical books, and local stellar and political maps.  
  
They proceeded back to Mandelin 4, and Sarah looked on with surprise as she saw what had been done recently. The farmland had been more than doubled in size, and the communications center was talking to her in real-time, instead of the usual send and receive required from before. There were even a couple satellites in orbit, providing navigation assistance for her. The shuttles that came up were of a new design, as it seemed as though they were not boosting into an orbital path, but were actually angling to meet her. Enjoying the spectacle of the ships, she nearly missed the other vessel working on the moon.  
  
A World Devastator had been moved to the Mandelin system, and was currently working on the moon's surface, sucking up material. Sarah saw the unusual flare of light coming from part of the moon, and zoomed in there. Seeing a World Devastator at work for the first time can be a frightening experience, and Sarah reacted as anyone would upon seeing one and realizing just how big it was.  
  
"Wha- what is that thing?"  
  
"We call them World Devastators. Originally designed to consume a planet and turn the materials gathered into new war machines, they have been loaded with plans for millions of different types of equipment. Ever since the war with the Yuzhaan Vong though, we have been using them to consume destroyed cities and ships, and rebuild them into new cities for people to live in. They are very effective in that role."  
  
As they watched, a hatch opened in the rear of the Devastator, and a packet began floating out. One of the shuttles angling towards the Barenica changed course to meet the packet, and they watched as the load of materials was tucked in below the shuttle, for transport back to the surface.  
  
Suddenly, the World Devastator shut off its massive beam, and both it and the shuttle began angling towards the moon's surface, apparently in an attempt to hide.  
  
"What's going on?"  
  
The Imperial officer made no reply, but instead beamed a tight message to one of the orbiting satellites. Getting a reply within a few seconds, he relaxed a little. "There is another shuttle that just arrived through the jump gate, and the World Devastator is shutting down to prevent detection. Standard procedure for us."  
  
Arriving at the planet, Sarah was shocked at the amount of food available to sell, as before she would normally have to wait a few days for it all to arrive. Looking over at the Imperial beside her, he just smiled. Turning back to the window, she watched as the pods full of food were attached to her freighter, and the prices that had been gotten for the textiles and plant varieties she had bought. She had guessed correctly, that the Imperial forces would not need high-tech and rugged equipment, and had instead bought items that were designed for consumers in mind, along with varieties of plants so the colony would have a more varied output. Next time she came back, she figured there would be cotton cloth in a variety of colors, with all of them natural and no dyes needed to give them color. She had also brought a few silkworms and the plants they needed to eat in order to grow.  
  
The shuttle that arrived after them was officially here to pick up food, and unofficially to get the data crystals for the Rangers. If the Governor Velholm had known what the impact of that shuttle's cargo had been, they would have ordered a pair of fighters to destroy it in hyperspace, so nobody would ever find it. As it was, the data crystals were sent out, and when they arrived at their destinations in a couple weeks, they would ignite a firestorm.  
  
***  
  
But there was no time to worry about that now. Governor Brogin had sent a couple of her people to Earth, to try to speak to Senator Varenska. She had sent the message via the stellarcom link up, and permission had been granted for a hour long lunch meeting, as the Mandelin system was in Senator Varenska's district. The governor had requested a meeting in a couple days, and explained the short warning as her people were already on the way, hoping that Senator Luchenko would have agreed. Since the Senator had agreed, Governor Brogin would tell her people the news via Stellarcom.  
  
At least, that was the official story. In reality, a Star Destroyer would be transporting the selected freighter to a jump gate near Earth, and then it would proceed normally through red hyperspace. All the food on board was kept in containers with dates and seals adjusted for the travel time, to further the act. Governor Velholm and Teleso went with them, as they were the two highest-ranking Imperial personnel, and were completely qualified to perform contacts like this. Teleso had a secondary mission as well, as there was the possibility of telepathic monitoring, either accidental or on purpose, and her mission was to prevent it. They would travel in what appeared to be a standard freighter, but the Agatrix would be standing by in case anything went wrong.  
  
There was a communication center put on board, allowing Velholm and Teleso instant access to the Agatrix, and through her, the rest of the Imperial forces. Even as the Agatrix carried the modified freighter in its belly, Velholm was reviewing the status of the repairs to the Eclipse. Far from being a potential write-off, the mighty ship was being repaired by droids and people round the clock, and it was estimated that within three more months, it would be back up to full capability.  
  
Governor Brogin's personnel, Chad Austen and Howard Vetson, were doing okay. They had been brought up to the bridge in order to see hyperspace, and several people had chuckled about it taking longer to bring them to the bridge than for the Agatrix to travel the twenty light year distance from Mandelin to near Sol space.  
  
All four people were enjoying the spectacle though. The two women that were part of the freighter's normal crew were staring in shock at the sheer mass of the Star Destroyer, while the representatives simply assumed that it was a large warship. The two spacehounds knew that this was no ordinary warship. First, the sensation of gravity was a surprise to them, as they were accustomed to zero-G except when accelerating. Second, was the appearance of the ship. A normal EarthForce ship had a forward control pod, a central weapons or gravity section, and an aft engine section. This ship seemed designed around a single hull, like a Minbari or Centauri ship, and the armor on it was obviously designed to absorb heavy firepower and ignore it.  
  
The trip through hyperspace was another spectacle to all four of them. They knew about the travel times needed to reach various places, and the time spent in hyperspace was a matter of minutes, while the travel between their jumpgate and Earth's jumpgate would require two weeks. Slowly coming to terms with the speed that allowed, they began imagining how far Earth could expand with that capability. Trade routes wouldn't pass through systems because they needed to, instead the routes would go between the buying system and the selling systems. It could even be within the realm for private citizens to own a small starship, or even to commute across the galaxy, instead of requiring massive investments in colonization ships for anything over a fifty light-year distance.  
  
When they reached the drop-off point, the Agatrix released the freighter into hyperspace. Communications checks were performed, and the smaller freighter accelerated towards the jump gate, and towards Earth. It would take them over a day to arrive, and so the six person crew settled down to wait. The two representatives from Governor Brogin knew a little about space, so they were being trained by the remaining members of the freighter's normal crew, while Velholm and Teleso had taken the opportunity to study the procedures for the freighter before they left, so after an hour of watching them at work, the two women who were part of the freighter's normal crew settled down to sleep. With six people aboard instead of the usual four, sleeping accommodations were a little crowded, but everyone knew that it would only be temporary.  
  
***  
  
Arriving at Earth the next day, the freighter arranged the sale of the food to Mars Central, and bought a few things there as well. Instead of buying the standard items, the crew went over the massive list that had been assembled by the colonists and began ordering from it. There was a slight change from the usual orders, as people were buying mostly consumer goods, instead of the 90% farm equipment loadout that was normal.  
  
The four people who went to meet with Senator Luchenko were dressed to not arouse any suspicion. The met with her at a small restaurant, and chose a circular table set to one side. Teleso and Velholm took the seats closest to the wall, as they were uncomfortable with having their back to the room. Senator Varenska and her aide took two seats facing the wall, and the remaining two members of the party sat between the two groups.  
  
Senator Varenska was no novice in the arts of politics, and the seating arrangements told her volumes of information already. First, the two people who were supposed to be the ones to talk to were merely the interface between her and the two people across from her. Second, whatever was going on was bigger than a mere lobbying effort, as the talk had not gone to any of the recent tax bills that were being proposed, but instead of the importance of open communications, and the need to keep Earth strong.  
  
Breaking through the small talk, Senator Varenska finally addressed Velholm and Teleso directly. "What do you want?"  
  
"We want to negotiate an agreement with the Earth government, for the purposes of technology exchange and military alliance, eventually leading to amalgamation between us."  
  
"I find it hard to believe that a small group of humans could have sufficient technology to make it possible to defend Earth against any threat. President Clark is trying his best, but it will require more sacrifice in order to be properly safe."  
  
"This should provide a clue." With that, Velholm took out a piece of metal from his pocket, and passed it to Varenska. Although it appeared to be a dull gray piece of metal, that two inch square and half inch thick piece of metal was a sample of full-strength Imperial ship armor. The metal slip looked harmless enough, but the potential it would suggest after it had been examined would be staggering. "One request though, is that you use a private company to examine it, not the government, and not IPX either. The results might be a bit unnerving for them. If you receive the results first, you can decide if you wish more information."  
  
"You expect this piece of metal to convince me?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"All right then, assuming this metal does convince me, what would you be offering initially?"  
  
"Initially, we would attempt to bid on government contracts, attempting to get a reputation as a shuttle building company. The shuttles we build would be a little higher in technology than the current models used, and would be far easier to repair and maintain. We could produce them for the same or even slightly less than current prices, and could guarantee completion within a week of the order arriving." Thinking to himself, Velholm decided not to inform the Senator that the shuttles would actually be built within a day, as that would seem too amazing to be acceptable.  
  
"After a period of time, we could offer construction of military vessels, such as fighters, and possibly ship armaments as well. We would also attempt to contract out with civilian shipping companies, offering lower-cost freighters that can equal or outperform.  
  
"However, the government would have to be a little more stable before we would start building the military components."  
  
Varenska suddenly tensed at that comment. Nobody knew who could be listening in for Clark and his inner circle, and the way he just said that was very dangerous. "Do you know what you are saying?"  
  
"I know. I also know Teleso is making sure nobody is listening in to us, electronically, or otherwise. My comment still stands, but if, say, the current President was unfit for duty, who would step in?" Velholm edged closer to Varenska slightly at that comment, and the body language spoke clearly. He wanted her to start building a power base, with one of her people to emerge as an alternative to Clark, and they would support her, both with technology, and with industrial capability.  
  
"Let me see what this metal is like before I do anything else. If it interests me sufficiently, I will contact the governor."  
  
"We understand. Is there anything we can transport for you on the way back to Mandelin system?"  
  
"Not this time, but perhaps, if the metal is interesting, I might be interested. But I'll communicate about that later." Both sides understood the hidden communication there, as the time it would take to build and transport whatever Varenska wanted would provide another piece of information that would contribute to her decision. "One question though, where are you from?"  
  
"Now that would be telling a little too much. After all, if the metal isn't worth your time, it doesn't matter where we are from, while if the metal does amaze you, who we are is irrelevant."  
  
"So you expect me to trust a completely unknown group of humans, who have been around somewhere, with a hidden agenda based only on this one piece of metal? I think you are seriously overestimating yourselves."  
  
Velholm and Teleso merely smiled in response to her comment. They knew what the metal was capable of, and all the information they had about Earth technology indicated the metal was several thousand years in advance of anything they had.  
  
Thanking them for the meal, Senator Varenska returned to her office, and looked up a chemical firm that was lobbying for votes for a new treatment process. They had been enjoying good relations with her, but were not doing so well under the Clark government. She called them up and asked if they would mind looking at some salvage one of her constituents had found. They agreed, and Varenska gave the metal to her assistant to take to them. It would take a couple days, but the metal arrived at the chemical corporation, and the people there began to analyze it.  
  
After the first few days, all the delicate means to test the metal without harming it were completed. The tests were inconclusive, and all they knew of the metal was its approximate density. Next up were the destructive tests. They would have to take sections of the metal, so each piece could be subjected to various tests. They were nervous, as each piece used would have to be tested exactly right the first time. As the diamond tipped saw began moving towards the piece of metal, each person waited behind a shield, in case the saw snagged the metal and sent it flying.  
  
When the saw contacted the metal, a horrible shrieking sound was heard, getting louder for a fraction of a second, then a loud bang, and finally silence from the saw. From the rest of the room though, shrapnel ricocheted inside for a few moments, then it quieted down as well. The operator running the saw shut it down, and slowly everybody got up from where they had ducked. Looking around the room, they saw several scrapes along the walls, and a few star patterns on the thick safety glass shield. The metal sample though, was still in its holding mount.  
  
When they went in the room, they noticed the metal didn't even show any sign of deformation from the saw teeth, but the saw blade was another matter. All of the teeth on it were missing. The source of the sounds heard was obviously the teeth being dented by the metal, and then all of them being ripped off and ricocheting around the room. Looking from the saw to the metal and back, the personnel responsible for destructive testing realized they might not have to be so careful after all.  
  
After a week of testing, the metal was sent back to Senator Varenska with a report of what was found. The report was not very thick, and merely listed the tests done, and the results. Beginning with the saw, the results were very unusual; laser melting test performed, mounts melted, metal unaffected. Electron Discharge Machine, nonstandard emissions detected in the glow created, but no measurable deformation in the sample. Kevex 3 testing machine, inconclusive results. Acid test, no reaction. Base test, no reaction. Sonic test, no reaction. Radiation exposure, no significant reaction, some common elements identified. Cryogenic suspension test, no reaction. Drill press, bit broke. Stamping press, sample unaffected, press broken. Gamma ray exposure, no penetration. X-ray reflection, no translatable results, will send results to physics laboratory with your permission. There was even a test that was written in, as it was obviously not part of the standard package. Fusion exposure, no reaction. Reactor used was set to 40 GW for purposes of the test. After 2 minutes of exposure sample was removed and glowed at 125W, but there was no measurable melting or change in dimensions of sample. A handwritten note was attached to the findings, and Senator Varenska smiled when she read it, 'Where did you get this?'  
  
That was one decision solved at least. Any humans who could create a metal with the extreme properties that were evident even to her were humans that she definitely wanted on her side. She began to think more on the metal. 'If this metal were used as armor, it would nearly impossible to crack with current weaponry. But why would anyone develop armor like this unless-. Unless they had weaponry that required this level of armor to protect the ship!' Her thoughts started to circle then, as she considered what could be possible with ships protected by that armor, and the weaponry needed to penetrate it.  
  
It was a simple choice on the matter. Watch President Clark turn the Earth into his personal concentration camp in all but fact, or ally herself with humans who possessed technology beyond imagining. But she still had to be careful, as Clark was a person that she knew, while the goals of these new humans were totally unknown to her. She would have to meet with them either way, and get more information. One of the key pieces would be who were they, and where did they come from? 


	7. Infiltration

Sheridan held his head in his hands, as Ivanova tried to restore order to the meeting beside him. He had dealt with an extremely stressful situation with the Berserker, but the contract negotiation that was going on seemed to be determined to make him go either deaf, or insane. Still, he was alive, and the station was intact. Maybe if he thought cheerful thoughts the rest of the world would turn out nicer. Looking at the mob in front of him he figured that would never happen.  
  
At least the few transport pilots he got from Mandelin 4 weren't complaining about it yet. Then again, that colony relied on food exports to get any credits in, so there wasn't much they would do. They would ship their excess food here, and sell it to whoever was willing to buy. Babylon 5 benefited from the fees they paid from docking and storing the food here, they benefited from having a central place to sell food, and other colonies benefited from the food available to be bought. He sighed again. At least the Mandelin system was a boring place, where nothing exciting was going on.  
  
If only he knew.  
  
***  
  
Velholm relaxed as he returned to the Eclipse battleship. The freighter had been decent enough, but he enjoyed being able to stretch out without worrying about either falling out of a hammock or hitting someone. Returning to his quarters, he relaxed in the desk chair, enjoying the solid feel of the deck beneath him, and the gravity pulling at him. Although they had only traveled in the ship for a couple days, the gravity from the acceleration wasn't as high or as reliable as the gravity from the plating below, and he had missed it. For security purposes, they had not included gravity plating, in case anyone went aboard the freighter. As a result, the half G while on the freighter was relaxing, it wasn't the same, and the solid feel of walking was a mild narcotic to him.  
  
Looking over the reports, he saw that repairs on the Eclipse were proceeding well, and that the Mandelin 4 colony was on its way to getting the second crop going earlier than usual. Even better, the droid farmers had managed to expand the arable farmland by five times its original amount, and the colony was reporting higher than usual yields, thanks to the droids' tireless efforts, the new fertilizers being produced, and the fast-growth crops that were being delivered. It appeared that Mandelin 4 was well on the way to becoming an organic powerhouse in the local space, and it was necessary to take the next step. Deciding on the appropriate colony locations would require the assistance of the Verentor, but the surveys of this system would only take about a week.  
  
Of course, he would have to breach the subject with Governor Brogin carefully, as several of her people might not want to live on a rockball. Still, there were always humans who wanted to explore new frontiers, and were willing to put up with a little hardship to do so. It had been that way in the Empire, it certainly looked that way locally, and it would probably be like that in the future as well. Of course, given Earth's current problem with overcrowding, it could even be possible to get colonists from there as well. But the timing would have to be critical, as having the new colonists arrive at their destination within a day would be a blatant tip-off to the EarthForce authorities that something unusual was going on. The necessary solution would be for the ship to keep the people contained within the passenger holds, while the ship merely waited until the time was right for a passenger ship to have reached the colony site. Another alternative would be for a single ship to transport the colonists, making multiple runs, and having the passenger pods attached to a central station. Of course, the central station's crew would have to make sure none of the other passengers saw each other, as that would be a dead giveaway. But at that point, they might as well build the additional ships, as that would be the easiest way to make sure the appropriate crew contacted the appropriate passenger compartments.  
  
He began composing the message to Governor Brogin, bringing up the idea of additional colonization as a possible idea to increase her influence with Senator Varenska. He knew the normal costs of colonization were fairly high, but with the technology available, those costs could be decreased easily. If the reduction in costs could be explained as a government subsidy, then more people could afford to come to the new colonies that would be set up. Of course, those people would have to be screened, to prevent any of the recent independence movements or any of the anti-alien groups from getting in, but with Teleso's assistance, and over a week for her to work through all the people who were applying, it could be done.  
  
Of course, if all the colony ships were groups into a single wave, it would be far easier for TIE Defenders to escort them to the waiting area. The convoy principle was a sound strategy, as if Raiders wanted to grab a freighter, they would only have the one chance, and that one chance would involve closing through a warship's field of fire, not to mention the swarms of fighters that would be launched as well. Plus, if all the freighters were equipped with their own jump engines and armor, the Raiders would find it next to impossible to harm or catch anything.  
  
***  
  
Governor Brogin read the message, and was a little shocked at the proposal. Of course, the offer to increase the number of colonists under her control was a bit surprising, but still, she would have to deal with several thousand more people under her authority. Not to mention the difficulties of communications, and enforcement of regulations. Thinking for a moment, she realized that another layer of bureaucracy was all but required. Her office would become the system government, and the other colonies would each send their representatives to her office, or even communicate via the communications system the Imperials used. Of course, with a multi-colony system, like Earth, she would have to be careful with the other colonies to prevent any independence movements from getting started. But that would be part of her new job, and she had better get started.  
  
***  
  
Senator Varenska was a bit startled when the request came in from Governor Brogin. The governor wanted to subsidize colonization efforts to her system, but with the right to reject anyone that she chose. If someone was rejected, they would not be charged anything, and it would not count against them for other colonization efforts. Included was a list of reasons that a person might be rejected, and Varenska smiled as she read over the list. The obvious limits were groups that wanted independence would not be allowed, along with a surprise request. Since Governor Brogin expected to be dealing with a number of alien species, people who were anti-alien were also being declined. Varenska thought about the proposal for a while, and smiled. It was obvious to her who was really doing the colonization, and the scale of capacity indicated by that offer was another incentive to her decision. Also, she knew a couple of senators with districts on Earth who were having a problem with overpopulation, but the people there were loyal to Earth. They had never had the money to emigrate, but this offer could help them significantly. Sending a request to meet with them over lunch, Luchenko decided she also wanted to speak to Governor Brogin's "representatives" again, and sent a message to them as well.   
  
Remembering the offer to from them to build a small device, she had spoken to a couple of engineers, and they had designed a simple looking structure. It could easily fit into a small box, but the components required for it would take several days or even weeks to be built, and had to be done under almost laboratory conditions. There was no way a colony like Mandelin 4 could muster the technological base to build the item normally, so completing the item would give her an idea of the technology base that was working behind the scenes. Even better, the component was critical to producing advanced laser weapons, so one of the pro-Earth companies could use it to help fabricate a new generation of weapons for Nova destroyers. The new weapons could be as much as twenty percent more powerful, giving whoever possessed them a useful advantage.  
  
If the results were impressive enough, then she just might be able to start offering a few spacecraft contracts to them. There was a shuttle contract coming up, and the current provider's leadership were very anti-alien. It had irked the government for a long time that they were effectively funding an organization with extreme anti-alien beliefs, and this might be a good way to take them down a notch. Of course, the old contractor might send a few people out to cause trouble, but if Governor Brogin's friends couldn't handle a little competition, then they might not be worth her time after all. She began making the necessary contacts, and setting up the first round of trials and contract negotiations.  
  
***  
  
Governor Brogin read the message, and forwarded the critical parts of it to Commander Valeyin, her Imperial Liaison. Overall, Varenska approved of the colonization request, and had already begun talking to a colleague, which meant she needed to get some sort of pre-fabricated colony building built on one of the outer planets. Adding that request to the message, she finally decided on a meeting over lunch, to see how the new colony would be laid out initially.  
  
***  
  
Bester stirred in his room. He had been on-planet for a month now, and yet he had not been able to find any trace of that powerful mind he had sensed earlier. He had been idly eating lunch in a restaurant, discussing a few of Psi-Corp's policies with an associate, when his friend had suddenly remarked, "I don't sense anything."  
  
Bester looked up from the policies for a moment wonder what she had meant by that, when he became aware of how quiet it was, mentally. Normally, he would be able to hear people as a background buzz, but right now, it was quiet. He began trying to gently listen around, attempting to find the source of the quiet, but there was no centralized location. The quiet covered the restaurant, and seemed to be limited by the walls, not by any radius from a person.  
  
Suddenly, the field dropped, and both of them recoiled for a second, startled by the sudden sound of voices coming in from all over. Instinctively their blocks slid into place, putting the buzz back at a comfortable level, but still, they had both realized that someone here had blocked a pair of Psi-corp senior members, and they didn't know who it was.  
  
Deciding to tackle the problem himself, Bester had gone back to his office, and had spent the next few days roaming the city mentally, trying to track down whoever or whatever it was. But that mind of power had vanished as completely as it had covered the restaurant, and he had been unable to spot it. Now he was frustrated, as someone that powerful would be a valuable asset to Psi-corp, and he had no idea who it was or how to find them.  
  
***  
  
Captain Jones read the report, and consulted the list of the planets in the Mandelin system, along with the Survey results. Thanks to the probe droids, she could survey an entire planet in a single day, and get an accurate read on mineral capability and possible colonization sites at the same time. With all the information in hand, she sent it back to Commander Valeyin, for her lunch meeting. In the meantime, with all the planets in this system mapped, she put in a message to Governor Velholm, requesting permission to begin surveying the surrounding systems, intending to get good information on their mineral wealth as well, in case additional colonies were required.  
  
***  
  
Commander Velasking looked over the bridge of his World Devastator. The Givas was the fourth World Devastator that had been constructed so far, and he had been responsible for building everything the colony on Mandelin 4 had needed. The amounts required hadn't even strained the massive factories deep within its hull, so the engineers had been enjoying their time by building smaller items, each competing with the other for the most unusual items. He had seen the item request that had come in, and had smiled. Someone wanted to test his skills, but the component requested was fun looking, and he sent it down to the engineers, knowing they would love to play with it. He figured it would take them about four to five hours to build it. But the other part of the request came in a few hours later. He was to design a stealth system for Teleso's Defender fighter; so current sensor systems in use would not be able to detect her.  
  
***  
  
Governor Velholm smiled as the adjusted requests went out. He knew the product could be built easily, but actually appearing with it before a normal trip from Mandelin 4 to Earth would normally arrive would be a bit hard to explain as another coincidence. As a result, he intended to have Teleso transport the component in her Defender, and deliver it directly to Senator Varenska's office. He figured that would be the final incentive to convince her to support the Imperial cause.  
  
***  
  
Teleso read the message from Velholm, and smiled. It had been too long since she had enjoyed a decent challenge, and penetrating one of the most secure places in the known galaxy without being seen either as she entered or left would be a definite test on her abilities. Since she would also need to land her ship, and make sure it wasn't detected at the same time, that would give an additional challenge to her. Reviewing the known layout of where Senator Varenska's office was in Earthdome, she began to plan how to make her entrance.  
  
Within five hours the component was finished, and it was given to Teleso, where she loaded it aboard her Defender, and launched. Engaging the hyperdrive, she changed into the underwater outfit she had selected, as the water near Earthdome would provide a wonderful opportunity for her to hide her fighter there. The skintight outfit was not only waterproof but also designed to shed water, while a small tank of compressed air the size of her fist would provide all the air she would need.  
  
She came out of hyperdrive on the other side of Earth's moon, and shut down many of her systems, while bringing up the stealth system. She had to decelerate enough to avoid having a re-entry trail when she hit the atmosphere, yet be fast enough to get to the Earthdome on time. Watching a shuttle leave a nearby ship, she angled herself to follow it, deciding to hide in its wake and follow its reentry path down to hide her own. To avoid detection by the ship that had launched it, she came around behind it, so its drive emissions would hide her own. Following the shuttle after it had sufficiently cleared the mothership, she got to within fifty feet, and reached out with the Force. With her mind linked to the shuttle pilot's mind, and the Force guiding her hands, she would not be discovered by anyone.  
  
After the reentry burn had finished, she angled away from the shuttle, and gently landed in the water nearby. Proceeding underwater, she got within a half mile of Earthdome, before she finally inverted her Defender. With a hatch on top, she had to have the craft upside down to avoid the water rushing in and filling the cockpit as soon as the hatch was opened. Slipping into the water, she began swimming towards the shore.  
  
Arriving at the shore, she waited a few moments for the water to drop off her outfit, and began sensing the building ahead, trying to find the sentries and electronic equipment she knew would be covering the entrances and exits. There! There were twelve guards on duty outside the building, with another dozen inside. The security cameras were covering the entrances, and recorders were connected to them so even if she did manage to hypnotize the guards, the recorders could still be examined, showing her penetration. So the way to get in would be to literally show the same image to the cameras. Reaching out again, she began to sense the best way into the building.  
  
***  
  
Bester was staying up late, again. Ever since he had sensed that mind of power, he hadn't been keeping up with his normal duties, and a lot of paperwork had piled up on his desk. Deciding to get some of it done tonight, especially the items due tomorrow, he was going through everything there, trying to get it down to a manageable level so he could continue looking. But something seemed to tug at his mind, and he let his mind roam free again, curious as to what might have caused it.  
  
***  
  
Teleso felt the other mind suddenly again, and knew she had to deal with him before she made her penetration. That mind could potentially disrupt her at a critical moment, so she began to set up a mild deception for him. It wouldn't kill him or harm him, but it would cause him to see all clocks as two hours later than usual, until the next morning.  
  
***  
  
Bester finished reaching out, annoyed at the minor distraction. He thought he had sensed that mind again, but obviously he was mistaken. Looking back at the clock, he was startled at seeing the time. Returning to his work, he figured he wouldn't be getting much sleep tonight. Making himself concentrate on the paperwork, he began to go through them, trying to get everything done as quickly as possible.  
  
***  
  
Turning her attention back to the building, Teleso began to nudge the cameras, setting them to transmit the same image over and over. She would have to be careful though, as if someone walked in front of a camera, and the main operator didn't see him or her, the alert would go off. While normal penetration would allow for some possibility of actually disabling a guard, this one had to go so smoothly nobody even knew she had been there. Sneaking past the first set of guards and cameras, she walked inside with a guard, blinding him to the fact she was there. The camera was similarly deceived, and she was inside. Resetting the outside cameras to their normal operation, she started walking towards the Senator's office.  
  
***  
  
The guard had been watching the interior heat monitors for a long time, making sure nobody was trying to hide inside the building, for who knew what. It was a simple fact of life that all of the oxygen breathing creatures discovered so far were warm-blooded, so if anybody was inside the building, they would either have their own air supplies, or be visible on his scope.  
  
***  
  
Teleso sensed the guard's mind, and realized what he was looking for. She stepped next to an air vent, and began to bring her metabolism down. It could slow her down if she got in a fight, but avoiding a fight had higher priority. Returning to her approach, she was only a few doors away from Senator Varenska's office. Suddenly, she sensed two more presences in a room to her right, and began to hypnotize them when she realized what they were actually doing.  
  
***  
  
Bob had been careful in his approach to the matter. He had brought a cooler, but in that cooler had been a small piece of dry ice. Susan had wondered what the dry ice was for, but he had explained about the thermal sensors. They had been dating on and off for a few weeks, and this was their first night together. They had decided to be a little daring, and were currently in Bob's office, where they were holding each other gently. They both knew about the guards patrolling the building, and didn't want them to burst in on them. They began to caress each other gently, building each other up.  
  
***  
  
Teleso almost chuckled at what was going on. These two could provide perfect cover for her if she wanted to use them as a distraction, but the sheer innocence of it stopped her. For all their intelligence, they were touching each other for the first time. She began to sense their hesitation, their lack of experience, and decided that she could help. Sneaking into Senator Varenska's office, she dropped off the package, and then began to meld her mind to theirs. Since there were no cameras or guards to worry about, she had hid herself under the desk in case anyone stopped in. Guiding their hands, she began turning random wanderings of each other's hands into definite patterns, but making sure it seemed as though each was learning in the process.  
  
***  
  
Bob had planned for a simple half hour of rubbing, but the tension building up between Susan and him had caused their body temperatures to rise sharply. The dry ice was sublimating too quickly, and the heat in the room was building up.  
  
***  
  
The guard on duty noticed the sudden heat spike in one of the rooms, and grabbed his radio. Within a matter of seconds, twelve guards were on their way to the office, determined to prevent any threats from being carried out at Earthdome. Arriving at the door, they asked the guard for the current status, and he reported that there was no movement from the heat source yet, and it was still rising.  
  
One of the guards had a small fiber camera, and he slid it under the door, and began waving it around from left to right, until he finally saw what was going on. Smiling, he passed the screen around to the others, and they all had a light chuckle. They filled in the guard who was watching the heat monitors, and he called off the security team that was on the way, explaining what had happened. Everybody decided that this was something that did not need to be reported, and electronic records of the time were edited. Several had to hide chuckles when they were told, and everyone there was in a much better mood for the rest of the night. A few of the guards were ordered to clean up the mess when the two left, as something this cute had to be kept secret.  
  
***  
  
Teleso smiled as the guards began relaxing and leaving. She had managed to deliver the package, and had also slipped out a side door while the guards were at the door looking. Slipping out towards the beach, she sensed the two lovers one last time, and grinned. Any hesitation they had before was long gone, and they were enjoying each other thoroughly. She swam back out to her Defender, carefully made her way out of the atmosphere, and gently went into hyperdrive and left.  
  
***  
  
Bob and Susan finally relaxed, and they slowly began to look around the room. Chairs were knocked over, papers were all over the floor, and the carpet seemed sticky in several places. He looked at the clock and was startled at the time. They had been in there for over two hours! He felt Susan stirring next to him, and she looked around the room as well. Remembering some of what they had felt during the previous hours, the both looked at each other and said, "Will you marry me?" Giggling like children, they both held each other close, before they finally began to separate and start to dress and clean up the room.  
  
***  
  
Bester finally got the last few sets of paperwork finished, and went to sleep. He knew that since he had to get up at 6 that morning, he was only going to get three hours of sleep, so that should be enough. He quickly put himself to sleep, trying to get as much rest as possible before morning.  
  
***  
  
Next morning, Senator Varenska came to work, and briefly wondered about the cleaning crew down the hall. Normally they came by after everyone had left, so it was a bit puzzling. Still, she was glad they weren't running that vacuum cleaner next door, and she went to her desk. Pulling out her chair, she nearly sat down when she saw IT. There was a package on her chair, with a little tag on it and wrapped in paper saying Happy Birthday. Carefully removing the tag, she opened it and saw that the package was addressed to her, and was signed, "From your friend, Brogin".  
  
Gently opening the package, she saw the equipment nestled inside a few layers of packaging, and she gently took it out. It seemed identical, but the best person to tell would be the engineer who designed it yesterday. Calling him up, she asked him to stop by her office at ten thirty, to examine something.  
  
If her guess was right, then this monitoring and application component had been built and delivered within twelve hours, while if she had requested an EarthForce laboratory to produce it, they would have required at least six days to construct it, never mind the one week travel time for a military vessel to bring it from Mandelin 4. Even more amazing, was the way it had been delivered to her office, without any of the guards on duty even noticing what had happened. She was convinced. These people were serious about the level of assistance they could provide, and the technology base they possessed.  
  
Clark did have allies of his own, but if she could show that these unknowns were better, then she could whittle away at his support, while placing herself in a position of power as their representative. If she could find the schedule for the next weapons test proposed by Clark's allies, and arrange to have her new friends there as well, her new friends could get a good idea of the firepower being wielded. If she could get a good idea of the firepower they wielded as well, that would help as well, providing her with a chance to compare the two. Unfortunately, without more information about them, things would have to be very desperate before they would trust an unknown group of humans versus President Clark.  
  
That lunch, she met with her friends, and discussed the colonization offer from Governor Brogin. The others were a little startled at the request, but they were willing allow the posters to be put up in their districts, along with the restrictions and requirements listed on it. The three friends of hers were a little curious at how an agricultural colony managed to scrape up the money for colonization, but Varenska just smiled. Distracting the topic with thoughts about the Nightwatch, the others were quick to voice their loyalty to Earth, as was expected. The lunch went in random politic decisions from there, but the hidden message between them was that Nightwatch was getting dangerous, and might get out of hand soon. President Luchenko, of the Russian Consortium, was especially interested, as the potential migration would ease population pressure in some of her districts.  
  
Returning from lunch, Varenska saw the report on the component, and smiled. The engineer who had designed it was shocked at the precision that had gone into it, but the way it was built also suggested assembly line methods, instead of the handcrafting needed for an Earth company to build it. Still though, the ultimate test would be the company that needed it to build their new lasers, and it would be arriving there that afternoon.  
  
In the meantime, she had to start whittling away at Clark's power. She knew that the company that built the shuttles normally was a good friend of Clark's, and donated several thousand per month to his coffers. Once the contract was brought up in a few days, she could introduce their bid in. Of course she would need a name for the company, but a quick message to Governor Brogin should take care of that.  
  
Later that day, she got her reply. The associates would be bidding for the contract under the name of "Von Sluis Corporation". She thought the name was rather funny, but it would work for now. 


	8. Engage!

At Mandelin 4, the Imperial staff members were laughing their heads off. One of the people at the colony site had a brother who was in shipbuilding, but recent government regulations had seemed designed to force him into bankruptcy. When the two had talked, his brother had been willing to act as a front for the Imperial shipbuilding systems. When they had found out his name was Von Sluis, the pun inherent in that had been too much. The Sluis Van shipyards were among the largest shuttle and fighter manufacturers in their home galaxy, and the sleight of words had given them a sense of home for a while.  
  
After the Von Sluis brother had seen the capabilities of the Imperial ships, and the speed that they could build new shuttles and ships, his eyes had lit up like stars. He could act as the front man for them, while the World Devastators would gather the material and build the actual shuttles. His own yards would be retooled to proper standards, and his people would be trained in the advanced technology. Many of the less than reliable people had already left, as he had been forced to cut back in pay several times because of new government regulations. A majority of the new legislation dealt with fees regarding shipping the shuttles through the jumpgates, but if he could include in the contract that the shuttles were to be picked up, that would be one of the fees that he would not have to pay. Even if he did, he could always add that back into the price of the shuttles, and let the government pay the government. The net result was he had a solid core of people who were absolutely devoted to the company, and they could be trusted with the new technology and secrets that would be soon revealed to them.  
  
When the first World Devastator arrived, and they saw the capacity that it could handle, everyone there began signing up for the various classes being offered. Their colony, Telvin 6, had been going through trouble recently as there were not a lot of credits flowing in recently, due to the Von Sluis yards closing. Although there were lots of valuable minerals nearby, due to the lack of arable farmland the colony had been buying food in order to stay alive. After Mandelin 4 had started selling bulk quantities of food at lower prices, the colony had looked upon that as a delay in their eventual bankruptcy. Already various smuggler groups had been talking to him about repairs on their vessels in exchange for money, and it had been getting harder and harder to say no. But with the new contract for the shuttles, the colony would be getting money in again, and could begin to revive its economy as well. Even better, if the newcomers were willing to put a military presence in the system, the smugglers could be encouraged to leave.  
  
The Imperials had another reason for wanting to sell technology like this on an open market. Inside each shuttle was a small recorder system, a transmitter, and a hidden IFF system that was also linked in with the sensor system. If an Imperial ship got close to one of these shuttles, the sensors would not display the ship, and the Imperial vessel could download the latest reports from the shuttle. This would allow them to extend their knowledge, as information spoken in a shuttle was generally considered private.  
  
***  
  
At the first meeting for the shuttle contract renewal, Varenska proposed the open bidding process. The Velos Corporation, who had been enjoying a virtual monopoly on the contracts, had asked Senator Williams to simply perform it as a contract renewal, with no discussion offered. Varenska countered, saying that if there weren't any bids better than the Velos contract, then they could always continue it. She did remind them about how the committee had been under investigation before for non-competitive bids, and showed them that by offering an open bidding, they would be able to claim that they are encouraging competition.  
  
Senator Williams reluctantly agreed, while privately making a note to send word to the Velos Corporation to watch its competitors, and make sure they did not succeed. She also wanted to find out whom Varenska had been talking to, as this sudden openness was a little off. But the motion was passed, and the next order of business was opened.  
  
***  
  
At the Mandelin system, the records of previous Velos contracts were analyzed, along with the design and capabilities of the shuttle currently in existence. Looking over the prices, the Imperials figured they could easily shave ten percent off the price that had been offered last year, while increasing the performance by at least fifteen percent. All the parts would be the same size as the Velos Corporation, but their capabilities would be better. Given the economy and technology currently possessed, the Velos Corporation could produce the same parts, but they would have to retool their factory first, and even after the upgrades had been paid off, the shuttles would still cost three times normal.  
  
It would be a very effective way of throwing down the gauntlet to them, but they would also have to be careful of any saboteurs showing up. As a result, Imperial scanners were installed at the many entrances to the front company, and several interrogation booths and droids were built, for when they were needed. If anyone from the Velos Corporation tried to show up to sabotage, they would be treated with utmost politeness, until they actually did something. After that, they would be interrogated, and the bodies disposed of. It would be as though they had disappeared completely, and the expense of hiring them would start to affect the Velos Corporation over time.  
  
***  
  
While the bidding was starting, Varenska received the report from the laser manufacturing company. They reported the new sensor package she had sent to them was doing an excellent job. Their lasers were getting a 15% higher throughput than before for their size, and EarthForce personnel were ordering several upgrade packages for their ships with the new lasers being the number one reason for the upgrades. Unfortunately, the lasers being built were only 1/3 the size needed, and converting them to the larger sizes necessary was proving difficult. A current fix was to merely package three lasers together as a single system, but the laser manufacturers would like to contact whoever had built the sensor package in the first place.  
  
Deciding to include that contact request in her next communication, she began putting together another message for Governor Brogin. Also, she was getting a little tired of the relay, and requested a way to contact Velholm and his friends directly.  
  
***  
  
When the proposal from the Von Sluis Corporation arrived, there were several reactions. Among those who had been trying to get a less radical corporation, there were several who were glad that a decent company was trying to compete. For those who tried to squeeze the budget, the lower price for the shuttles was a plus. But among those who had something to gain from the Velos contract, there was hesitation. An upstart company, that they thought had been put in its place, was trying to compete against them. But they began looking over the bid, and their dismissal of them turned to concern. The price for the shuttles was lower than their current offer, and they were guaranteeing identical or superior capabilities with current models.  
  
Several back room conversations took place, and a few 'investigation' teams from the Velos Corporation began making its way to the Von Sluis yards. They were traveling undercover, intending to find out how the construction was going, and dispose of critical parts or people. As for the others, they read about how the Von Sluis Corporation would perform the actual construction, with the sale of a group of five being used to finance the next group, and the last payment being used to pay off the bank loan. They saw that bank as a potential weakness, as if the loan could be delayed or stopped, the shuttle shipment would be pushed past the contract date, making it null and void.  
  
***  
  
The independent miner returned to the ore collection plant, and began to off-load the rare earths he had gathered. The investment in the smaller processor had been well worth it, as the money made from this trip was over a dozen times what he had earned before, and he was able to start making the first set of payments for the processor. He also began to load up on his next set of supplies for his next trip, instead of going on a drinking binge, as most others would do. He had done that before, and it had taken him over a year to get out of the debts incurred that way.  
  
After he had bought the necessary supplies and repair parts, he began to talk to the other miners there. He began showing them the trench in the planet, and the time scale involved between the two views. The others there began laughing at first, but as they began to examine the records, they slowly started mumbling among themselves. Whatever did this had the potential to put several of them out of business if it went over their personal veins, and they didn't want that to happen. The local "special parts" store owner suddenly found himself almost mobbed the next day, as miners began buying weapons for themselves and their ships. He quickly found out that ninety percent of his stock was bought up, and there were several rain checks being demanded as well.  
  
Calling up his suppliers, he began placing orders for the various weapons, and asking for group discounts and shipping discounts as well. He was ordering over three dozen long-range lasers, and the possibility of simply getting them built at an assembly line was in his mind. There were about a dozen particle beam and plasma weapons being ordered as well, but most miners preferred lasers, as they could also be used for spectroscopic examination of a rock at long distance as well as being used as a weapon.  
  
***  
  
The data crystals arrived at their destinations, and the recipients began stirring. Entil'Zha Sinclair read over the data, and noticed that the timing of the shuttles was completely off what a normal cargo run would be. He began looking into how much cargo the shuttles were off-loading as well, and began doing some calculations. Looking at the result, he realized that these shuttles were carrying twenty percent more cargo than they should normally be able to. It was obvious that these shuttles were the tip of an iceberg of what was going on out there. Selecting two Rangers to proceed to Mandelin 4, he began giving them their orders.  
  
***  
  
Delenn also reviewed the data from the crystal, but not having enough information on the shuttles involved, invited Sheridan, Ivanova, and Garibaldi to view it as well. They all agreed with the decision that the shuttles were loading more cargo than normal, and were moving faster than expected. Looking at each other, Sheridan spoke first.  
  
"I think we should take a trip to Mandelin 4 in the White Star. We'll pop out of hyperspace farther out than normal, and slowly cruise in. If we think that we could get spotted, we'll jump out and return here."  
  
"Captain, I'd like to volunteer for this mission." Ivanova spoke up. "I've had to try to keep order in these trade negotiations, not to mention your little stunts of giving someone a PPG, and waiting to see if they would use it on you. I need to get into space again."  
  
"Technically we are in space," but seeing the look on her face, "but all right. You can go, but be sure to take along a translator."  
  
"Marcus should do well in that job," Delenn put in.  
  
"Then it's settled. Ivanova, try to bring us back some information about what's going on out there."  
  
Within a few minutes, a shuttle eased its way out of the docking hatch, with two people on board, who were going to perform a little detective work.  
  
Arriving at the White Star's location, they quickly took their positions, and went on their way to Mandelin 4.  
  
***  
  
As the results began to move in, Von Sluis looked over the cargo bay of the World Devastator. The twenty shuttles had already been built, and all he needed to do was distract any investigators or saboteurs with the older assembly areas he still had. With the shuttle parts that were lying around, along with the hulls that had been built, it would look like he and his workers were building shuttles slowly, and haphazardly. With the small number of workers he had, it would be easy for the Imperials to spot anyone new at the work site, and deal with them.  
  
He had managed to arrange the sales in groups of 5, explaining it as a local shipping company being willing to buy 5 shuttles themselves if the government decided to decline the offer. Of course, if the government did accept the offer, he would build a group of 5 each time, and had even loaded pre-completion bonuses into the contract, so if he could deliver the shuttles earlier than expected, he could get a nice little bonus. The shuttles would be tested of course, and a team of military inspectors was being routed to his shipyards to verify the quality of the shuttles that were built.  
  
A week later the inspectors arrived, and found the first shuttles waiting for them in the hangar floor. They performed tests on them, checking the ease to take them apart and put back together, their handling, fuel efficiency, acceleration, reentry and launch performance, landing gear performance, and many other areas as well. At the end, the inspectors signed off on the shuttles as being ready.  
  
The first payment was made to the Von Sluis Company, and the next set of shuttles began to appear to be worked upon. It took two more weeks for the shuttles to be cycled through the plant, where several times Velos operatives tried to sabotage them, but each time Imperial troops managed to catch them, and interrogation droids took their minds apart. Afterwards, it was a simple matter to remote control the shuttles through the local jump gate, where a Star Destroyer waited to pick them up. For all intents and purposes, the shuttles were effectively vanishing after they left, and the Velos Corporation could not find any trace of them afterwards. After three different teams never reported back, Velos decided to cut their losses, and decided that they would try to reverse engineer the shuttles, to get the technology they needed. Temporarily admitting defeat, they ordered a shuttle from Von Sluis, and picked it up from the site. Bringing it back to their headquarters, their engineers began tearing into it, trying to see what technological secrets they could uncover.  
  
***  
  
While this had been going on at Telvin 6, Ivanova and Marcus had been doing their work at Mandelin 4. They had jumped in a day away from the jump point, and were accelerating in gently, with their sensors set to passive and recording data from the planet.  
  
Their first bit of surprise had been when they reviewed the records of Mandelin 4. It was primarily an agricultural colony, as their engineers had died off, but the records had shown high-tech equipment being unloaded. There was nobody there who could possibly maintain or repair the equipment, and when they saw the droids building the various structures, their surprise got even larger. Whoever was doing the construction was clearly sinking a large amount of work into the colony, which meant that they had plans for it.  
  
As they got closer to the planet, more surprises began to show up. The area being used for farmland was several times what was known about the colony, and they knew that heavy investment and colonization was necessary to produce the increased farm area seen there. The satellites in orbit were another surprise, as the normal procedure listed for this colony was to communicate with the ground controllers. These satellites appeared to be both weather satellites, and positioning satellites to assist the ground-based controllers.  
  
A brief flare of light on the moon caught her attention, but it was gone before they could really see anything. She thought about getting in closer to see what could possibly be there, but figured she already had enough data for a first set of speculations. But that flare had been analyzed by the on-board systems, and it had shown emission spectra similar to fusion, but had also possessed spectral lines indicating heavier elements. That got her attention, and she gave orders for the White Star to angle towards the moon, while maintaining the stealth mode.  
  
***  
  
The groundside radar watch operator noticed what appeared to be a small blip on the screen, but it faded away quickly. Dismissing it initially, as a false contact, he returned his sensors to the large-scale sweep, keeping track of the various items in orbit and traveling to and from the moon. He enjoyed the new range and capabilities of the systems. He even began switching between the different types, when suddenly he saw the blip again. The gravitational scanners picked up a fluctuation moving in a straight direction, while infrared was also picking up a contact at the same location.  
  
Calling out the possible contact to the other operators, he also put in a call to his counterpart on board the World Devastator, advising them that an unknown contact was moving directly towards them. Operators around the room began looking at the data as well, and visual sensors on board the satellites began swinging in that general direction, trying to get a visual on the intruder. The general attitude was that they were going to let the unknown get closer, then spring a trap. In the meantime, all the space traffic continued on its course, letting nothing unusual be observed.  
  
***  
  
Marcus was fidgeting. He had picked up an extremely powerful sensor sweep a few minutes ago, but fortunately nothing had happened after that. He was concerned about getting this close to the planet, but Ivanova's curiosity was up, and he had to admit he was curious as well. But still, there were over a dozen satellites in orbit, most of which probably had sensors other than radar, and every passing minute brought them closer.  
  
***  
  
The World Devastator heard about the contact, and moved around to the far side of the moon. It had finished the manufacturing from a few minutes ago, and it had been necessary to turn off the beam so the new structure could be removed through the front. Just when they were getting ready to start mining again the new contact had been reported, and they decided to lay low, as Imperial forces weren't strong enough to take on a new enemy with certainty. What they could do though, was have a few Defender fighters follow the new contact through hyperspace back to its source. But in order to do that, without allowing the contact too close, it would be necessary to engage it. Sending a message off to Fetoro 3, the commander requested a Defender squadron hyper in to engage the unknown.  
  
The ready squadron turned about, and went into hyperdrive. It would take them a couple minutes to arrive, and they selected their exit point so it would be on the far side of the moon from the unknown.  
  
***  
  
Marcus and Ivanova were getting nervous. This close in, they should have been challenged by the local spaceport, but nobody had done anything that they had noticed yet. Radar systems were still scanning normally, although the power was much higher than they were accustomed to. The unknown contact was still on the far side of the moon, and they were swinging around so they would have the moon between them and the planet, in case they had to run quickly.  
  
"Anything yet?"  
  
"Nothing Susan. Whatever it is, it appears to still be on the other side of the moon. Shouldn't we be leaving now? We're a little close to the planet and its sensors."  
  
"Not just yet. We're here to see what caused that flare, and I intend to find that out. It's just a little farther-"  
  
"Fighters! Six fighters dead ahead!"  
  
"Where did they come from?"  
  
"Don't know but they're coming after us."  
  
"Get us out of here, full throttle!"  
  
"Doing it. Multiple tracking systems on-line, and aimed at us. I'm detecting power build up in the satellites orbiting the planet. I think some of them may be weapons satellites."  
  
"How long before we can jump?"  
  
"About thirty more seconds."  
  
The Defender fighters angled around behind the White Star, and the leader broadcast a message, "Attention unidentified vessel. Either identify yourself and shut down your engines, or stand by to be fired upon and boarded. We will fire warning shots now."  
  
Green turbolaser bolts from the Defenders burst through space scant feet from the White Star's hull, causing Marcus to twitch the controls slightly to avoid further fire. The fighters adjusted for the White Star's movement, and began dialing their weapons to destroy its engines, to get it ready for boarding.  
  
Suddenly, a voice came over their communications network. "This is Governor Velholm. Allow that ship to escape, but don't let it think it is getting away. I want to know where it goes, and who owns that vessel. Set your lasers to detonate, and shoot near it. Also, set your shields to full power, and let it hit you a couple times with its weapons to get an idea of how powerful they are."  
  
The Defender fighters in-system did a volley as they dodged, but all the shots missed. Digesting the orders, the assistant squadron leader told the wingmen to reset their turbolasers, and to leave one exit vector open for the white ship to escape through. Selecting another communications channel, he contacted his squadron leader, and passed on the orders. The squadron leader smiled. She would have her fighters follow the ship if it opened a jump point into hyperspace, and would be able to follow it.  
  
Turning back around, the Imperial pilots began setting up for a strafing run from the front, as they had observed the weapons pointing forwards, and were putting all their shield power forward, to minimize any damage that might occur if they took hits. Bringing their turbolasers down to low power, and setting them to detonate instead of impact, the fighters began firing slowly, trying to test the capabilities of the armor protecting the ship.  
  
"What was that?" Yelled Ivanova, as a massive explosion rocked the White Star. From the way the helmsmen reacted, the blast had seriously damaged their maneuverability, not to mention the other alerts she could see on the screens.  
  
"Some type of plasma weapon. Looks like it was losing containment before it hit us, so it hit over a large surface, instead of a single point. Do you want to return fire?"  
  
Susan thought quickly. She didn't want to fight these unknowns, but they couldn't afford to get captured. "Fire guns forward, just try to clear a path."  
  
The weapons on the White Star spoke, but not in anger. Firing similar plasma bolts as the fighters; they coursed out into space, trying to squeeze a path between the attackers. Two of the bolts hit a fighter, and it spun out of the way.  
  
"Ita ten report!"  
  
"Lieutenant, those things didn't even penetrate my shields. If those guns are at full power, there's no way they can hurt us."  
  
Ivanova saw the fighter get knocked aside, and asked, "Are the jump engines ready?"  
  
"Almost there, now!"  
  
"Do it!"  
  
A blue vortex formed in front of the White Star, and the small ship punched through the hole in reality, trying to get away before the other five fighters began opening fire again. The fighters swerved away from the vortex, as they had seen what would happen to non-invited vessels when a jump point closed.  
  
Safe in hyperspace, Ivanova began to relax. "Report."  
  
"We took a large amount of damage when those plasma packets detonated near the hull. The armor is regenerating, but it will take several hours before it is back at full capacity. But that's not the bad news though."  
  
"Our armor will take hours to repair and that's not bad? What is the bad news?"  
  
"If those bolts had struck our armor directly instead of detonating as it did, the shots would have punched a hole straight into our armor, and quite probably our starboard engine would have been destroyed. As it is, the engine is only at ten percent power, but damage control is on it.  
  
"We were overpowered Susan. It's as simple as that. That fighter squadron had enough firepower to take on a White Star and win. We only got away because they were firing single shots to cripple us, and those shots were landing less than a tenth of their damage against a large surface area of the hull. If those fighters had been shooting to kill, we'd be a bunch of burnt molecules right now."  
  
Ivanova took the news calmly, on the outside at least. On the inside, she was reeling with that knowledge. Whoever was at Mandelin 4 possessed technology vastly superior to the Minbari, and possibly even the Vorlons! They had to get this information back to Babylon 5 as soon as possible.  
  
But even a White Star's sensors were degraded by hyperspace, and they never even noticed the six fighters following them. For Imperial squadrons were composed of twelve fighters, and these pilots were using their visual and infrared scanners to follow the White Star. They would follow it to where it jumped out, and then jump out far away, closing in to watch what was happening.  
  
Arriving back at the proper coordinates, the White Star jumped out of hyperspace, and Ivanova and Marcus got back onboard the shuttle to go back to B5. They had transferred the critical information to a data crystal, and wanted to get back to Babylon 5. They needed to talk to others, and the information on the crystal was critical to whatever others might decide.  
  
The fighters watched the shuttle leave the ship, and recorded the coordinates of the White Star. They had jumped in far from where the White Star had exited, and had used their powerful sensors to find it. Eventually, a salvage team would arrive to examine the white ship, but they needed to know where that shuttle was going. Creating their own jump points, they entered hyperspace as well, and began following the shuttle, at the same discrete distance. When it exited, they would record any nearby signals, and exit far from them as well. They wanted to know where that shuttle was going, and whom it worked for. 


	9. Return

Back at EarthDome though, Varenska was enjoying her mild victory. The anti-alien lobbyists had dropped off in number, no small part due to the Velos company losing their contract, and hence their bankroll to help the lobbyists. For people who had wanted better shuttles, the twenty shuttles were being divided up among them. In fact, she had heard several people wanting to contact the Von Sluis Corporation to talk about contracts for refitting their shuttles.  
  
Still, this was only a minor victory against Clark. He still had his unknown supporters, and she needed to meet with the investigation committee later, as they were still looking into the very suspicious accident that claimed President Santiago's life the previous year. If they could get enough leverage against him, they could force him out of office, and someone else could take over.  
  
Someone like President Luchenko? She was head of the second largest political bloc on the planet, after the United States. China was fifth, because it was still recovering from the economic controls and the infighting that had occurred when the communistic government had been overthrown. In spite of the damage, its large number of farm communities had allowed the interim government to keep people fed, and it was slowly but surely building itself back up. The third and fourth places were the European Community and the South American Collective. Various other nations had been absorbed into larger governments, so those five were the critical groups. If Varenska could start to convince them to come over to her side, she would be able to get enough support so Clarke would be removed, and Luchenko put in his place. Even better, Luchenko was currently viewed as a moderate, and had been a friend of ex-President Santiago.  
  
Now there was a possible thought. If she could gather enough votes on her side, and get enough other senators to support her when the time was right, Luchenko could effectively take over the office of the President. With the support of the new friends, she could start making proposals of off-world contracts. Earth-firsters, that support Clark, would make a large cry, but after the higher-quality items begin rolling off the lines, her position would be strengthened. Soon, Clark would be faced with either keeping his current support groups, or accepting the fact that the off-world suppliers were building better vessels, at higher quality, in less time than anyone else would think possible. If he kept his current groups, he would eventually get forced out due to a lack of support from them. If he changed his current position, he would be reacting to someone else, and that would violate his public appearance of wanting to be Earth First.  
  
***  
  
Arriving back at Babylon 5, Ivanova and Marcus met with the rest of the 'Code 7R' group. They were all startled at the change in the Mandelin 4 colony, and when they saw the sheer number of satellites, their jaws dropped. Everyone there knew Mandelin 4 was an ordinary farming colony, but this level of technology displayed was astounding.  
  
"This is more along the lines of what we would expect from a fleet base or Earth, not a farming community. Where did they get all of this stuff? More importantly, why haven't they told anyone about it?"  
  
"Also look at that scanner beam. That's more along the lines of a ship-mounted system than a satellite system. In fact I believe it did pick you up, and they let you get that close to begin with. I think they were setting you up for a trap the whole time."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"Ivanova, look. You said that we should have been challenged by their spaceport when we got close to the moon, yet we weren't. However, those six fighters suddenly appeared in front of us later on, and we had practically no warning. There were two possible reasons why we weren't challenged. One is that they simply didn't see us, and the other is that they had already seen us, but didn't want to give it away. Since those fighters pounced on us so quickly, it would be fairly safe to say they had been getting continuous updates of our position. From there, I feel that they had spotted us to begin with."  
  
"Wait, what do you mean the fighters suddenly appeared? Did they pop over the horizon, power up weapons, come through a jump point, or what?"  
  
"Michael, what we mean is that those fighters suddenly appeared out of nowhere. I'll show you the relevant section of the recording." Everyone there watched as the White Star kept creeping over the moon, and the six fighters suddenly appeared. "There is a slight blur when they first appear, and I'll slow it down so we can see." The recording played itself again, and everyone could see how the fighters had seemed to blur in. Tracing back along the path showed nothing much, only that the fighters seemed to appear out of somewhere, and blur in.  
  
"Is this a type of jump engine for fighters, or something else?"  
  
"We don't know yet. If it is a jump engine, then they are apparently traveling at a high speed in hyperspace, and it looks like they just slide out of hyperspace when they get to their destination. If it is a stealth system, then it's a pretty good one, as we didn't detect anything.  
  
"One thing that was noticeable about them though, is their firepower. Here is a picture showing the damage we took from their weapons." A low whistle sounded from Garibaldi, and a gasp from Delenn underscored the display. "As you can see, better than one quarter of the armor on that side was damaged by them, and that was from only a few shots. It took the armor over three hours to completely heal itself, and even with the armor's protection, our starboard engine was down to ten percent capacity. After those bolts hit, I decided to get the White Star out of there, and managed to hit one of the fighters on the way out." Another visual showed the plasma bolt hitting one of the strange fighters, and the fighter spinning out of the way.  
  
"Can you show us a little more detail on that fighter?"  
  
Telling the computer to focus on the fighter hit, they watched as it got hit by the bolt and spun out of the way. When it recovered within a couple seconds and began turning back, Ivanova paled. Marcus spoke up in the silence, "It appears as though our weapons didn't hurt it enough to be disabled. I wonder what damage we did do?" Manipulating the controls, he brought up a visual of the fighter before and after the impact. Telling the computer to do a comparison between its energy signature and hull between the two visuals, he waited a few seconds for the result.  
  
"No physical differences detected. 3% change in energy signature detected," reported the calm voice of the computer.  
  
"Well, that's information to think about. We hit it with our secondary guns and all we got was a three percent drop in its energy signature. These bloody things are tough and dangerous, not counting however they managed to appear like that. Also, what are they doing at Mandelin 4?"  
  
"Well Marcus, from the looks of it, and how they reacted, they are guarding it. Also, from the way the farmland has been expanded, it looks like they are turning Mandelin 4 into their advance base, and the local people are benefiting from it as well."  
  
Delenn suddenly stiffened, "John, didn't we get a crystal about Mandelin 4 earlier? We could try to watch that record again, and see if there are any new aliens on it. At least that way we would know what they look like."  
  
"I tried looking at it several times, but the only beings I saw there are humans. From the looks of it, it seemed that only humans were the contacts between the locals and the aliens. Which means there is someone else out there that was found by them, and are acting as the go-betweens. The one bit of good news in the report was that these humans were cooperating with the local government, instead of dictating terms. What would be nice is if we could get an official investigation into the colony, and find out exactly what is going on"  
  
Ivanova spoke up then, "can't we get some support from EarthForce to help look into this? We can show them the information showing how similar the two are, and maybe they can start looking for these new freighters and ships."  
  
"Slight problem with that Susan, is when they ask us how we got that information in the first place. After all, we can't exactly tell them we have an alien ship and the command staff uses it to investigate things without EarthForce knowing about it. They might want to tag along for a ride."  
  
Making a face at Marcus, who simply grinned, Ivanova turned back to the others. "Well, the least we can do is tell them that there is an unknown presence at the Mandelin 4 colony. At least then somebody will get interested enough to look into it."  
  
"And they will promptly ask us how we know that something unusual is going on, and why we were interested. No matter how we cut it, EarthGov will want to know where we got our information. We'll just have to trust that they are able to put the pieces together and figure this out."  
  
A few grimaces broke out at the classic joke of Intelligence services getting a complete picture before something critical happened, and the meeting broke up on that note. Everyone there knew of the connection, and how powerful those fighters were. Delenn would send the information back to her government, and they could try to find an excuse for a Minbari transport to swing by Mandelin 4, and report back on what it saw. By having an alien government make the observation, that should be enough to get Earthgov's attention.  
  
***  
  
A few hours later, Michael Garibaldi was tossing and turning in his bed. Something about that presentation had been missed, and his mind was refusing to let him sleep until he thought about it. He began reviewing the data again, how Ivanova had managed to make it in, how the fighters had caught them, and how they had managed to escape. They had been caught by the fighters, and managed to escape. They had been caught by stealth or jump-capable fighters and escaped.  
  
They had escaped, when the fighters could have caught them easily, or damaged them severely.  
  
But the fighters had damaged them severely when they had fired.  
  
That didn't feel right. Getting up, he went over to the monitor, and called up the data concerning the White Star and its engagement with the fighters. He watched the fighters arrive, and open fire. He saw the fighters miss the first time, and circle back again. He watched as the shot detonated near the White Star, and cause the damage.  
  
He saw one shot detonate near the White Star. Reviewing the other shots, he saw that they didn't detonate. "Computer, run a comparison on the containment for the shots. Show me the level of containment failure for all the shots fired by the fighters. Make the graph have time since firing as the independent variable, and field strength as the dependant."  
  
"Running comparison."  
  
Garibaldi paced for a few minutes, waiting for the results. Hearing a chime, he watched as the graph drew itself on the screen. Seeing only a group of lines gradually decreasing he asked, "Computer, are there any statistical anomalies?"  
  
"Define anomaly."  
  
"How much difference is there between the shots fired within the first five seconds of the video?"  
  
"Approximately 1%."  
  
"How much difference is there in the containment strength between the shots that hit the White Star and the shots in the first five seconds?"  
  
"Approximately 480%.  
  
"Show me the graph, but edited for the length of the shots that hit the White Star."  
  
The graph came into view again, and it looked like there was a bare hint of a couple lines at the lower part, but it seemed to merge into the bottom bar halfway across.  
  
"Computer, highlight the line that symbolizes the shots that hit the White Star."  
  
A line began flashing on the graph. It was the ones that merged into the bottom of the graph, and Michael began to think harder. "The shots that missed had excellent containment, but the ones that hit had poor containment. Either their weapons are good for only a few shots each, or those shots was intended to detonate. Unless they were merely toying with the White Star-"  
  
"Computer, show a tactical view of the fighters and the White Star, with the moon as the reference point. Also scan for any energy emissions detected between when the fighters appeared and when the White Star left."  
  
The screen came to life again, and he watched as the fighters appeared and came barreling in. He watched a sudden energy spike be detected, and the fighters broke off their original run, and began maneuvering again, but firing to miss. The single fighter got in the White Star's way, and it was hit.  
  
The other fighters had been firing the entire time, and the one that came nearby had detonated? "Computer, were there any other shots from those fighters that detonated?"  
  
"Negative."  
  
So only the shot that hit them was designed to detonate, and the other fighters were merely scaring them? But why would they do that unless-  
  
"Computer, scan the recording of the White Star's trip back to the waiting point. Specifically, look within the visual records of a ninety-degree cone behind the White Star. Look for any vessel within that region. Scan the thirty seconds after the White Star went into hyperspace."  
  
"Scanning."  
  
Getting more nervous by the minute, Garibaldi began to suspect that the White Star hadn't really escaped after all. When the computer reported, "Six vessels detected," Garibaldi asked the computer to identify them. "The vessels are identical to the fighters already observed."  
  
"Computer, do the fighters show up the entire way until the White Star leaves hyperspace?"  
  
Several seconds went by, as the computer checked the data sequence. "Affirmative."  
  
Michael paled at the word. If the fighters had let the White Star escape, and more of them had followed it back to the rendezvous point, then they knew where the point was. If they knew where it was, and had ships of their own, then even now, they could be-  
  
Tapping his link, Garibaldi connected himself to Lennier. Hearing a very sleepy 'yes' from the other end, Michael said, "I need you to meet me in my quarters now. I've got important information, if you follow me." By placing additional stress on the last four words, he hoped Lennier would recognize the significance.  
  
Hearing the beep a few minutes later, Garibaldi told the door to open. It only took a few minutes for Garibaldi to explain his suspicions to Lennier, who quickly agreed with it. Heading back to Delenn's suite, Lennier explained that he needed to use the flyer, and his excuse, so Delenn could corroborate the story. He also advised Delenn that if she had any questions, Garibaldi would be able to answer them. After he did that, Lennier went to the Minbari flyer, and requested permission to leave, explaining that he had to run an errand for Delenn. Getting permission from the Command center, Lennier left the station, and made his way to the White Star.  
  
Getting on board, he commanded the White Star to move to a different location, and on the way there he explained to the rest of the crew what made the movement necessary. The others dealt with the shock privately, as they had their jobs to do, but all realized what could have happened if the unknowns had managed to get a starship of theirs in range to capture the White Star. With the way a mere fighter had damaged them with one shot, they did not want to even consider engaging a full-sized or even medium sized warship.  
  
Lennier had the White star drop him off at a close location, and it then went to the agreed-upon location to hide until they decided it was safe to return. From that close location, Lennier returned to the station, and went back to his job as Delenn's assistant.  
  
The next morning, the entire command staff listened as Garibaldi told them what he had managed to figure out the previous night. All of them realized what could have happened if he hadn't picked up on that anomaly, and their faces showed it. When Delenn stopped by and told them of Lennier's trip, their worries faded into sighs of relief. Now they wouldn't have to worry about the White Star being dissected.  
  
***  
  
Lieutenant Bregin watched the ship disappear into the jump point, and sighed. She had managed to get here just a minute late, and the ship was leaving. Since the ship was gone though, and its crew alerted, there was no need to try to pursue. Although her ship could overpower the white one easily, it would take a lot of damage in the process, which would reduce the chance of any interesting technology being found.  
  
Briefly she looked over the records of the fighters, as they had followed the ship through the red space. Looking at the records again, she noticed something unusual. There had been a dark discoloration where the turbolaser had detonated near, but at the end of the journey, it was gone. Commanding the computer to play back the video, and to show that section from a single perspective, she watched as the section began to lighten around the edges. Running the simulation faster, it looked as though the area was healing itself!  
  
She chuckled lightly to herself. Experiments had been made in the past with self-healing armor, and even living ships and armor, but the armors had eventually been phased out. The self-healing armors had their repair capability destroyed by the massive damage a turbolaser could deliver, while living ships and armors had an even simpler flaw. In order for the armor to be alive, it required a constant flow of nutrients to itself, and those tubes had proven to be weak points in the design. Not only that, but the cells had possessed membranes that were inherently porous, so massive impacts would cause them to rupture. There had been several attempts to use living ships over the millennia in the Republic, but all of them eventually had relied on dead outer skin as the actual armor, and the time it took to replace a sufficient amount of living armor was far more than the time needed for a chunk of metal to be pulled out and replaced with new armor.  
  
The Yuuzhan Vong had shown that living ships had some potential, but even they had relied upon dead skin and armor equivalents in order to function safely. The few living ships in the Empire were all pleasure craft, except for a few pirate vessels that used their ability to self-repair as a cheap way to get out of repair costs. Even then, those pirates always attacked fast, and if they did not win after the first few minutes, they always ran away to prevent their ships getting killed. The other main advantage of living ships was that they were fairly difficult to spot, and could use their camouflage ability to sneak up on unsuspecting ships. Unfortunately, even sneaking up like that only allowed them one volley of shots, and after that any decent warship usually vaporized them.  
  
If the major powers in this galaxy used living, or similar technology, for their ships, then it would prove even easier to defeat them. Thinking back to the black ship they had seen at the beginning, and the others that had been destroyed since then, she began to wonder if those vessels were actually in the employ of one of the local powers. If so, then the Empire might want to start finding out more about them. Composing a quick message with her simulation and suspicions, she sent it off to the Imperial command at Fetoro 3.  
  
For now though, she had her orders. If she couldn't find the white ship, she was to proceed to the other site, where the shuttle had exited the red space, and see what she could see. Giving the new orders, a jump point was created in front of the Skipray, and it darted through. It would take a couple hours for them to arrive, and she began composing exit points, where the Skipray would come out of red-space a few thousand kilometers short, engage in a scan, and proceed farther if desired.  
  
***  
  
Commander Ivanova was watching the status boards, and reviewing the day's traffic reports. There wasn't much that would be coming today, and that was good. It would allow her to think about the young monk who had been killed those days ago. He had turned out to be a serial murderer that had been mind wiped, and turned into a monk, but his new personality had been very helpful and kind. She still missed him, but she kept that part of her hidden. She began looking over the reports and manifests of what was going in and out of the station for that day and sighed. Still, she liked the boring days. The alternative, being scared out of her mind, was much less appealing.  
  
***  
  
Lieutenant Bregin nodded at her pilot, and the Skipray opened its jump point, and proceeded through slowly, trying not to be detected as an anomalous ship, even though its unannounced jump point would have already triggered alerts if anyone was in range.  
  
***  
  
Ivanova looked up as one of the scanner personnel called, "Commander, I've got an unscheduled jump point opening about five thousand kilometers away."  
  
"Show me."  
  
Ivanova looked at the jump point, and where it was forming, and was very curious. Whoever was opening up that jump point would take several minutes to arrive at Babylon 5, but they obviously weren't in trouble, or they would have used the jump gate. Deciding to find out who they were, Ivanova opened a channel to them, "Unknown vessel, this is Babylon Control, please identify yourself and your purpose here."  
  
***  
  
Lieutenant Bregin heard the transmission, and glanced up. So the vessel had come from Babylon 5, or somewhere nearby. In fact, since the shuttle had been seen exiting the jump gate that was obviously under Babylon 5's control, then obviously whoever was in command of Babylon 5 was either responsible for the ship, or knew who was.  
  
But it didn't matter either way. She had the necessary information, and it was time to leave. Telling her pilot to get them out, they opened up another jump point, and left.  
  
***  
  
"Any response?"  
  
"None Commander, wait, they just opened up another jump point and left."  
  
Ivanova sighed. Whoever had popped in like that apparently wanted to do some sightseeing while she was on duty, and that meant she had to fill out the contact report. Calling up the checklist, she began filling it out. She attached to the report all the scanner data they had managed to pick up, and decided to look over it herself. Sending the report up to Sheridan for his review, she started looking at the power signature from when the jump points opened. All races had their own distinctive style of how they used Quantium-40 to open a jump point, and those styles were all but a fingerprint of what race had built the jump engines. Calling up the unknown vessel's jump signature, she began running a small program to compare it with known races' jump signatures, wanting to see if there was a match.  
  
A few minutes later, the conclusion came in. She looked over the report again, not believing the results. She then called up the original data and compared it herself. But the results were the same. The closest match to the jump point signature was an Earth jump generator. Now she was definitely curious. Why would an Earth ship jump in, not even identify itself to an Earthforce station, and jump out again? There were a few differences in the signature, but those could be looked into later. Sighing lightly, she began directing the first few ships of that day's traffic into the two main transit areas, hoping that the day would be nice and boring.  
  
***  
  
Lieutenant Bregin relaxed as the Skipray exited the red space and went back under hyperdrive. The slow speeds that went by in the red space seemed far too long to her, as she was used to being able to go anywhere in the galaxy in a matter of hours or days. In that red space, it took days to move within an empire, and weeks to get from one empire to another! She supposed she was a little impatient, but once back under hyperdrive she could relax, knowing nothing in this galaxy could touch her, except for another Imperial ship.  
  
***  
  
A few hours later, Ivanova got curious about the anomalies seen in the scan of the unknown intruder. The jump signature had appeared similar to EarthForce engines, but the anomalies stood out. Moving over to the Captain's console, she began punching in a program. The program would look over the unknown's jump signature and a standard Earthforce signature, and attempt to figure out the difference. Setting the program to have a low priority, to avoid interfering in normal operations, she set it to sound a chime when it was finished. She knew that she should be running the program on the main console, but the chair at the Captain's station was much more comfortable than the smaller one at the main console. Since the computer did not know what to look for, there was no way to tell how long the program would take, and she kicked back and started to relax.  
  
***  
  
A couple of hours later, Captain Sheridan arrived, and Commander Ivanova quickly got out of his seat. Her program hadn't finished yet, so she still had no answer yet to why the jump signature was different. But she was now off-duty, so she couldn't see the results.  
  
But as she was walking out the door of CIC, a beeping sound was heard from the Captain's console. She began walking over to the console to see what the results were, when Sheridan looked at her.  
  
"Mind if I ask what that sound is and why it is coming from my console Commander?"  
  
"I was running a program to try to identify the contact that popped in earlier. Apparently it finished, and I'd like to see the results."  
  
"Well, normally I'd agree, but since you did use my console, I get first crack at the data."  
  
He had moved over to his console by this time, and began to call up the results. Looking over the data, he said, "That explains it."  
  
At this point, everyone else in CIC was wondering what was on the screen. Several of them had their replacements sitting in their seats, yet they were still there, wanting to hear what the cause of the unknown contact was.  
  
"Attention everyone. According to this data, and certain data packets that have been for Captains only, the jump point was caused by a prototype Earthforce ship. It is using a new type of jump engine, and apparently went off-course. Since the crew is obviously under orders to keep their vessel completely secret, they jumped out again without identifying themselves.  
  
"As a result, this information never leaves this room. I want none of you to discuss it with anyone else, or to let any hint of this slip out. If asked, you will not admit to anything, and merely tell the person that nothing happened. Also, I will not be passing on the contact report due to the potential security breaches involved in passing it further up."  
  
Everyone there suddenly opened their eyes wide, as they knew the results if they let the secret of this leak out. People had disappeared for similar reasons, or sent to the farthest outpost in Earthspace for less, and they liked their jobs in a space melting pot.  
  
Turning to Ivanova, Sheridan spoke to her, but with a lowered voice. "Commander I could give you seven reasons why this has to be kept secret, but just make sure nobody else finds out. In the meantime, the best thing for you to do is go back to your quarters and get some rest." 


	10. Shadow struck

Susan looked at him a little funny, but she left the center, and headed for her quarters. She normally went out and relaxed a little with Stephen and Michael, but this time the Captain had suggested that she return to her quarters and get some sleep. Making her way back to her quarters, she began getting changed into an exercise outfit so she could stay in shape. Muttering to herself, she was about to begin her warm-up exercises when-  
  
"Voiceprint recognized. Delivering text message with attachments."  
  
Susan jumped up at the computer's voice. She looked over at it, and began reading the message there.  
  
Susan, that was no Earthforce ship. I attached the results from the comparison to this message, and you will find them very interesting. -John.  
  
Looking at the attached data, she saw it was the results of her comparison. The comparison had been performed against several models of jump engines Earthforce ships had used, yet the only match had been against a theoretical study done years earlier. That study had been an attempt to create a jump point without using Quantium-40, but it had been a computer model only. It had shown that creating a jump point without Quantium-40 required power levels greater than Earth produced in an entire year to open a point for a single message drone, yet it matched the signature far better than any other model available.  
  
Susan looked at the bottom of the message, where John had added the results from a small calculation, showing the estimated power used to open each of the jump points. She looked at the number, a second time, and then it registered. The power used was greater than Earth produced in a century, yet it had been expended casually by a single craft just for a jump point.  
  
Thinking back to how Garibaldi said the White Star had been followed by those powerful fighters, and detecting this vessel so close afterwards, it could only mean one thing. These people knew where the White Star was based from, and had the capability to get to Babylon 5 whenever they wanted.  
  
How much chance did Babylon 5 have to stop them? With the new defense grid in place, they were equal to a cruiser in firepower, so she could go with that as a rough guide.  
  
"Computer, engage a combat simulation. Defender force is one Omega Destroyer with 60 Starfuries as fighter escort. Attacker force is six of the unknown fighters that the White Star encountered. Setting is empty space, neither force has any surprise. Run both sides until all forces on one side are destroyed. Assume that an unknown fighter is destroyed when the power level is reduced to zero."  
  
"Simulation created. Caution, unknown fighter sensor capability not listed."  
  
"Assume sensors are equal to Earthforce sensors."  
  
"Sensors selected."  
  
"Run simulation."  
  
"Simulation running."  
  
Waiting for a few seconds, the computer chimed. "Simulation concluded."  
  
"Show results." Looking through the results, Ivanova gasped at them. The entire defender group with the Omega had been destroyed, in less than two minutes. The attacker group had not suffered any casualties, and only one fighter was below sixty percent in its energy level.  
  
Turning from the screen, and slowly collapsing on the floor, she hugged her knees to her chest and trembled. Only six of the unknown fighters would be needed to destroy a top of the line Earth vessel, even with its full fighter escort. The worst part was, they wouldn't take any casualties.  
  
But still, there was a chance. "Computer, set up same simulation as before, but replace Earth vessels with Minbari vessels of appropriate size. Assume that the Minbari stealth system is not engaged for this simulation."  
  
"Substituting Sharlin war cruiser for Omega. Substituting Nial fighter for Starfury. Simulation created."  
  
"Run simulation."  
  
"Simulation running."  
  
Ivanova began to breathe a little easier now. With the Minbari possessing the highest technology of anyone, with the exception of the Vorlons, defeating these new fighters should prove easy. She didn't want to think about what one of their warships might be capable of though.  
  
"Simulation complete. Displaying results."  
  
Ivanova slowly stood back up, and began reviewing the new data. She put her hand to her mouth in shock. Even a Minbari force was defeated, but they managed to take out a fighter before they were overwhelmed. Then she began to think in her head the reasons the Minbari were so dangerous. Their stealth systems made them almost impossible to track effectively, which meant that all Earth ships had enjoyed the thrill of closing to visual range against enemies that could shoot them from much farther away.  
  
But she had deliberately handicapped these Minbari by assuming that the unknowns could see through their stealth. If the Minbari stealth was effective against them as well, then they had a fighting chance. She sent a message to John, including the results of her simulations, so he would have a good idea of what they were up against.  
  
Beginning her warm up exercises, she got her blood flowing again, and managed to relax enough to call Stephen and Michael to tell them that she would be turning in early today, and not to wait for her. Besides, if she knew John, he had already told them in their 7R meeting, and they were going through the same level of shock as she was. She almost wished she could be there to see their faces when they saw the results from the simulations she had run.  
  
After finishing the exercise, she cleaned herself up and got into bed, managing to relax enough to go to sleep. She never realized the one assumption she had made in the simulations, and that assumption had skewed the results.  
  
***  
  
Seeing the results from the Skipray, Governor Velholm sighed. Apparently this Babylon 5 was conducting some sort of joint operation with the Minbari. Judging from the rear of the white vessel, and observed patterns in Minbari vessels, they shared the same type of propulsion systems. The thruster systems were also similar to Minbari designs, so apparently the Minbari designed the engines and power plant, while the ship got help from the Babylon 5 station. There wasn't enough information yet to determine if it was official or unofficial, but the lack of mention about the craft in the news reports suggested a top secret craft.  
  
The scanner emissions from it had been unusual though, in that they had been similar to those detected in what was known as 'Vorlon space'. The most likely possibility was that the vessel was a project between the Minbari and the Vorlons, while the station provided support. If that was so, then one possible option would be to split the alliance between the Minbari and Vorlons. To do that though, they could build their own vessels, similar on the outside to the white ships seen, and use them to attack Vorlon targets.  
  
But most races already didn't like the Minbari to begin with, as they had the highest technology, but were willing to talk to other races. The Vorlons though, were regarded as mysterious and menacing. Explorers into their space simply vanished without a trace. If they could use their own weapons to destroy any vessels that came into a certain area, and that area was near the Vorlon border, then it would make it look like the Vorlons were expanding their territory. After all, if they created a similar disappearing zone elsewhere, then it would be a new mystery and races would go investigate. But if it was near an existing mystery, then they would get angry at the only possible target.  
  
A third possibility existed though. The Markab race had apparently been wiped out by a plague last year, and their homeworld was effectively empty of people. If they set up shop there, and created their own black hole zone, then any ship disappearances might be explained as the ghosts of the Markab taking their revenge against those who lived. Smiling as he tried to imagine the reactions among the different races, Governor Velholm began organizing the ships that would be sent there. The Star Destroyer Violence would go there first, start setting up hyperspace sensor pods, and getting a feel for the local terrain. A World Devastator would be sent there as well, for consumption of the ships destroyed, and for siphoning up the Markab civilization.  
  
Captain Beleron heard the orders and smiled. It was long past time since the Imperial forces had enjoyed a chance to engage hostile forces, and he had been concerned they might lose their edge. Calling up the system's information, he decided to hyper in, and close in from outside the orbit of the outermost planet. From there, he could launch fighters and gunboats, and use them as extended sensors as the whole group would drift in. This way, he could see if anyone was already there, and make plans for them.  
  
***  
  
The black shapes moved gently in orbit over the planet. The biological weapon had worked against the primary population, and every one of them was dead. There had been a delay in moving in due to the number of scavengers who had been grabbing souvenirs from the cities, but the vessels present had quickly annihilated them.  
  
Now the base was being built up, with organic factories to grow the fighters that each ship needed, and mechanical factories to construct the few mechanical items they needed to link with the local ships. There were over a dozen of the giant warships in orbit, ready to attack anything that came near, along with smaller versions of them, growing to their full size slowly. Other vessels were scout designs, intended to seek out new prey for their larger brethren. They were patrolling the system, making sure it was secure. This base was as well defended as anything else they had.  
  
Which meant it was a pathetic target practice to the Imperial ships bearing down on them.  
  
***  
  
The Violence erupted from hyperspace at the edge of the system. By using their version of hyperspace, instead of the jump type, their travel time had been a matter of minutes, and the massive ship began launching its smaller craft to spread out and destroy anything that got near. He also told four of the gunboats to form jump points and head towards the planet, in case any of the vessels were patrolling there, or tried to escape.  
  
A sensor technician called out the first contact, and two TIE Defenders angled to meet it.  
  
***  
  
The ship was curious about the sudden return it had received on its sensors. There had been no indication of any sort of jump point opening up and a ship arriving; yet here was something. It detected four more jump points opening up, yet it detected four vessels leaving through them. How did they get there? Deciding that this would be unusual, it angled towards the contact, eager to learn more. A sudden movement nearby caught its attention, and it saw-  
  
***  
  
Turbolaser fire erupted from the Defenders, destroying the scout vessel.  
  
***  
  
Captain Beleron watched as his fighters destroyed the scout vessel. It hadn't even had time to send off a message, and he proceeded further in system, eager to get among the other ships there and begin damaging them, to prevent any of them from getting away. There was a possibility of other scouts in the system not being close enough to be targeted, and able to run away, so he ordered a small tachyon stream to be sent away from the homeworld, out into the rest of the system, where other ships could be and would detect it. He also ordered passive sensors to try to find other vessels in-system, so the Defenders could hyper over to them, destroy them, and return. If he could get rid of all their sensor craft, his ship could deal with the forces at the planet easily.  
  
***  
  
Two more scouts detected the stream, and wondered what was causing it. Sending a message to the scout that was in charge of that volume, they awaited a reply. Receiving none after a while, they altered course towards the source, wanting to know more. Their curiosity was suddenly changed, as small fighters suddenly appeared near them, and they also died in seconds.  
  
***  
  
The base intelligence was getting concerned. Three of its scout vessels had failed to respond to the normal querying pulse, and there had been no sign of any recent alerts from them. Since they were distributed all over the system before contact was lost, it was obvious that either this system was under attack by a multi-prong force, or they had found something unusual. Sending out a message for them to respond immediately, it awaited a reply. In case there were other forces moving in, it ordered the other scouts to head towards the planet, to take shelter under the weapons of the larger cruisers.  
  
***  
  
Captain Beleron smiled as the optical sensors reported star occlusion indicating several vessels heading towards the planet. The black vessels were very hard to detect, but when they passed in front of stars, they temporarily blocked them out, and that was enough for the computers to focus on those areas for further attention.  
  
Waiting several minutes as the vessels gathered around the planet, he began setting up his attack. The remaining gunboats would attack the far side of the planet, in case anything was hiding there. His ship would attack the near side, destroying anything it came across. The fighters would split into 2 groups, one going with the gunboats, and one with him, taking care of any fighters that might be launched.  
  
Counting down the seconds, he finally gave the order, "Attack."  
  
***  
  
The base intelligence had gotten more concerned as nothing had been heard from the survey vessels since its message several minutes ago. Its cruisers were gathered close to the planet, and the firepower they wielded meant that nothing that attacked would survive.  
  
And then all hell broke loose.  
  
***  
  
Hypering to less than a thousand miles from the planet, the Violence lived up to its name. Anti-fighter turbolasers, medium and heavy mounts spewed a rain of death upon the living ships gathered near the planet. All but two were destroyed outright by the blasts, and the remaining ones survive only because they had been hit once each by anti-fighter weapons. The gunboats had sped around, and the few ships they found were savagely destroyed. A single ship launched a fighter ball, more out of reflex than of any attempt to attack, yet a medium turbolaser tracked the sphere and destroyed it before the fighters had separated. There was little more than ash left from the single hit.  
  
Turning their attention to the ground base, Captain Beleron ordered a total bombardment of the base, to prevent any message from getting out. If any sort of warning was received from this location, then the other parasites might know that the vessels were destroyed by hostile action. But if nothing at all was received, then they would have to send a ship or two to investigate. Within a matter of seconds, the base had gone from a coordinated effort to get some fighters in the air to a molten ruin. Medium turbolasers, for anti-shipping combat, had yields of over one hundred megaton yields per shot, while the heavy guns were capable of well over fifteen gigatons per shot. Since each turret could fire once every two seconds, the base never had a chance.  
  
The ground below and around the base was devastated by the strike as well. When the medium bolts struck, the ground was forced downwards then made to explode as pieces of a star were briefly slammed into the ground. The ground erupted for miles around, with the material reaching several miles up before finally arcing down again. But where the heavy turbolasers hit, the devastation was total. Each gun had recoil measuring in the gigatons, and that was before the energy from the plasma bolt itself was considered. Some of the fighters in space had to dodge quickly, as mile-wide chunks of rock arced over their heads during the bombardment. Cities around the dead planet trembled, and those within a few thousand miles of the blasts were knocked down by the earthquakes caused by a ravaged world.  
  
Calling in the World Devastator, the debris in orbit and in-system was consumed and filtered, and then the ship began work on the planet below, removing the base first, and then beginning a slow spiral outwards, consuming the material below. The first order of business for the World Devastator was self-reproduction again, and the new one would start heading off to a neutron star. Imperial armor incorporated neutronium in its makeup, and a neutron star was the most reliable source found so far. The existing stores of neutronium were almost used up, and a few days of mining the neutronium would help take care of armor manufacturing needs for several weeks.  
  
Another World Devastator stopped by while this was going on. It had been ordered to a black hole previously, in an attempt to get the hypermatter fuel that was required by all their vessels. A quick fuel-up of the ships brought fuel stocks up, and the vessel switched duties with the one going for planetary consumption. Staring at a black hole and its accretion disk for days on end is not psychologically helpful, so it was necessary to change out crews of the stations in the Empire where the mining operations were performed. Those few who could handle the difference, of total darkness in one point, and the magical splendor outside were few and far between, and usually wound up as poets, artists, philosophers, or guests in psychiatric hospitals.  
  
***  
  
With the expanding scope of Imperial operations here, the fuel runs were becoming more and more often. Filling up the Eclipse's tanks was a priority, as if they had to run, the Eclipse could go anywhere, and not worry about anything engaging it. Its weapons were still being rebuilt, but the ship would only need another five weeks of repair before it was once again fit for duty. The crew would be even made up of droids even more than before, as there simply weren't enough bodies to fill all available positions.  
  
There had been some improvement in that area. Governor Velholm had known that a basic biological law of population growth was the number of women available. As a result, he had ordered the ship's doctors to administer a low level drug into the crew. The result was that the new population of children was over three-quarters female, and the nurseries were already filling up, from the number of people getting married and having children both on board his ships, and at the base. Most of the people that had already been married though, were still waiting, as they still had contact with the Empire (at 2 week intervals, but they still had contact), and were remaining faithful. Several of them though, had managed to come to terms with the fact that they wouldn't be seeing their families for a long while, and had started dating. Some were from planets where polygamous or open marriages were the norm, and had adapted within a matter of days. Others came from worlds where being apart for long times meant that options were open. The final few who were married before had received separation papers from their spouses, and were no longer married. They had wept for a few weeks, while others talked to them, and they finally started talking to others again.  
  
Still, the fact was there that there would be an eighteen year gap in the ages of the next set of Imperial ship crew, until the local populations began to be self-supporting. If they could get a few refugees though, who were fleeing from the Earth government, then they could accelerate their program to establish the Empire here. In order to do that, they would have to increase the friction between parts of the Earth government, while protecting them at the same time.  
  
The easiest way to do that would be heavy raids upon the empires near the Earth space borders, to keep them from getting any ideas. Even better, this could be combined with the earlier plan, of attacking the parasites and their allies. The news reports they were getting told of certain empires on the attack, and achieving astounding victories. Two of them were selected, and Velholm ordered the Eager Fire and 2 World Devastators to proceed to one of their main military depots.  
  
Their orders were to annihilate all defenders, and consume the depot below. The nearest defenders were over a day away, so the World Devastators would have plenty of time to eat.  
  
Seeing them on their way, Governor Velholm had an idea. If everything else started going down the drain, they needed something as a fallback position. He called up a list of the Engineers who had been in charge of the city construction, and began reviewing them. He needed someone who was well balanced in personality, yet was creative and loyal enough to be trusted with prototype construction far from supervision.  
  
Commander Vonoya seemed to be the best candidate, and Governor Velholm began to read the report on her. She had received excellent training in both large-scale construction technologies, and was extremely able to adapt existing designs in her mind, while maintaining their original capabilities. Even better, both her and her crew were well-balanced people, and could handle isolation, strange environments, and unusual orders easily.  
  
Calling her in, Governor Velholm told her of his plan. She would take her World Devastator to the Galactic Core, where neutronium and hypermatter sources would be available, and several systems easily reachable for raw materials. Showing her the plans, he asked how long it would take to build.  
  
"Assuming nothing goes wrong, or delays me, fifteen months. Bear in mind that I will have to cannibalize most of the World Devastators in order to build it, so you won't have that many of them when it is finished. But fifteen months is a solid estimate. I can send monthly status reports if you wish."  
  
Nodding his head, Velholm approved the operation.  
  
***  
  
The Abbai Admiral glanced over her forces. The base they were protecting had over three million tons of war material needed for the fight going on with their neighbors. With their new allies, they were making excellent inroads, but securing the planets conquered required their forces, and this base was critical to supporting them.  
  
Which was why the defense fleet was so heavy. Three orbital bases, several hundred ground-based fighters, and eight cruisers in orbit guarded the base, making sure that nothing hostile got close enough to attack. Even if anything managed to get through the defending fleet, the base was set into a mountain, with over one hundred feet of granite between the supplies and the open air.  
  
Turning to an aide, she was about to ask the progress of the current attack, when she saw a blur of motion outside. That was all she had time for before the ion bolt electrocuted almost everyone on board her ship. The rest of her formation broke up, as individual commanders tried to grapple with the shock of the sudden attack, and the new ship design seen. A few managed to bring their ships around and begin opening fire, but their fire seemed to have no effect on the unknown ship. The base itself tried to set up a communications channel, but a powerful jamming field was preventing all communications from being successful.  
  
***  
  
Captain Beleron watched with glee as the first few salvos blew into the alien ships, crippling them without shattering them into hundreds of pieces that would have to be hunted down. His orders were to destroy the base, but not to leave any remains behind that could be analyzed. As a result, he had ordered his gunners to only use ion turrets to attack the ships, intending to cripple them with each blast. As the shots rang out though, he noticed that it seemed to only take one hit per ship to cripple them.  
  
But another symbol on the tactical view concerned him, and he began passing orders.  
  
***  
  
Wing Leader De'verstok was afraid. She had been expecting a nice and calm patrol route around the base, as any enemy forces were busy engaging their offensive strike groups, when that unusual ship had burst in and started firing. She had watched her display as over half the defending ships were classified as crippled within the first few seconds of the engagement, and knew that this ship would walk all over the base as well. She had ordered her wing to disengage and run, so that they could get through the jump gate and tell anyone what was going on!  
  
They never saw the Defenders pop in right behind them, and destroy every fighter.  
  
***  
  
The rest of the battle was over with very quickly. The defending starships were neutralized in a matter of seconds, and the orbital forts were hit a couple of times as well with ion weapons. The ground base though was launching fighters, until a medium turbolaser blast in the middle of the runway put a stop to them. The fighters would have taken two or three minutes to get into space, but they never reached that altitude. A volley of shots destroyed all of them, and the Star Destroyer called the World Devastators in. It was time to eat.  
  
The deep control centers of the planet were allocated to the World Devastators to unearth and consume, while other surface structures were to be vaporized by the Star Destroyer. Briefly Captain Beleron was tempted to order a Base Delta Zero attack, but he dismissed the idea because he didn't want to reveal too much at once. His mission here was to remove the base, not do planetary sterilization.  
  
The tractor beams of the World Devastators reached out, and the one in space and one above the planet began to feast. Ships, fighters, bases, fortifications, buildings, and people disappeared into their maws without any complaint from them. A couple of ships blew up as they were being eaten, but the explosions barely scratched the paint of the Devastators, and merely broke the larger ships into smaller chunks for easier digestion.  
  
***  
  
The Abbai admiral watched the three ships in horror. The triangle shaped ship was busy bombarding the planet, while the box-shaped ships had separated, with one going to the planet, and the other working its way through her fleet, consuming each ship in turn. She guessed that the other was doing the same to the planet below, and most likely to the supply base. She started thinking about how the loss of the supplies would all but halt the attacks currently going on, and then she started thinking along other lines. Namely what were these strange ships doing here, what did they want, and most importantly, how could they stop them?  
  
But those questions soon became moot, as the World Devastator moved over to her ship and began to feed. Her scream was lost in the tearing metal and escaping atmosphere as her ship was ripped to shreds and taken into the ever-hungry maw of a World Devastator.  
  
***  
  
After twenty hours, the World Devastators had consumed the ships, bases, ground fortifications, and supplies, and the small fleet turned and left. Their job had been done well, and the holds of the Devastators were full again. As they set a course for the Fetoro system, the fighter jocks traded stories, while the engineers on the World Devastators began building the next set of machines that were needed by the small colony.  
  
***  
  
At first, there was no concern by the Abbai military. It was common for communications failure at different times, so a small frigate was sent there to double check. Her captain came through the jump gate normally, and set a course for the planet. When repeated hails got no response, she began to get nervous. When a scanner technician gasped in shock, she asked what was wrong.  
  
"Captain, the base is gone. There are no ships in orbit, no orbital forts, and the base itself seems to be missing."  
  
"What do you mean missing? We had three forts, over half a dozen cruisers, more than a hundred fighters, not to mention the groundside defenses here for protection. The Llort would have required a massive striking force to even attack this place, let alone defeat it."  
  
"Captain I don't know what happened, but I am not reading any sign of orbital material, intact or otherwise. The radar reports from the base don't seem to match up properly either."  
  
"Let's head over there."  
  
When the frigate arrived at the base, and the destruction became obvious, the Captain ordered, "Activate the transmitter. We need to report this in to Fleet Command." After giving the overview of what had been seen and sending it off, she ordered a ground search team to investigate the base, and see what was left. Their report came in a few minutes later. Where the base had been was now a gaping crater. The supplies stored beneath the mountain were gone, along with most of the mountain and the surrounding area. The defense installations at the base were gone as well, and according to some of the investigators, it looked as though they had been ripped out of the ground by force.  
  
***  
  
At the Abbai Fleet Command, there was a lot of concern. Their current military advances required the supplies at the base in order to keep going, but without those supplies they would stall out. But they could salvage something out of the situation, as the Llort forces had not been putting up any sort of defense recently. If they could arrange a peace treaty with the Llort now, accepting peace in exchange for a few of their worlds, they would be better able to find out who did this and take revenge. Sending their suggestion off to the Governmental Hall, they began to perform estimates of how much power was required to pull of an attack like that.  
  
At the government hall, the diplomats argued for continuing the war in spite of the supplies missing, but cooler heads prevailed. If others heard about the base going missing before they released it, then other races might see a chance to attack them. As a result, they ordered a general cease-fire along their front, and offered peace terms to the Llort.  
  
It took the Llort government a few days to deliberate the offer, but the choice from their point of view was clear; continue with the war and get annihilated, or lose two of their worlds and survive a little longer. They sent the reply a couple hours later, accepting the peace treaty.  
  
At the Abbai homeworld, they had been trying to determine what could be done to cover up the massive blow their military had just taken. They finally settled on announcing that with the peace treaty with the Llort, they would be shutting down the base there, and moving the supplies elsewhere. The base would be dismantled, and a small observation base would be built there instead. Although the story was fairly thin, it would explain the far lower military presence there. Even better, the lack of debris would help them, as there would be no evidence of the attack.  
  
One of the staffers though was a Drazi spy, and she had a copy of the original data in her possession. Transferring the data to her Drazi contact, she settled down to wait for the results. Having a leak of that high a level, it would undoubtedly point to a spy in the government, but the Drazi government could always find other ways to put this information to use. 


	11. Non April Fools Chapter

The World Devastators arrived at Fetoro, and spent a few minutes unloading the material in orbit. When their storage centers were empty again, they and the Violence went into hyperdrive, towards their next target. The Brakiri had been enjoying several victories recently, and it was time to clean out another nest of parasite allies.  
  
***  
  
On the way there, they received an important transmission. Dropping out of hyperdrive, the vessels downloaded recent activity in Brakiri space, and Captain Beleron noticed something particularly elegant. A group of parasite warships would be striking a Mentab colony, intending to destroy its orbital assets. A Brakiri heavy strike group would then move in to seize control of the high orbitals, and to take out any possible vessels that might try to escape. After that, a troop convoy would arrive at the planet to conquer it.  
  
The best part was that these vessels were traveling as three separate groups, and none knew the fate of the others until it arrived at the colony. Checking the schedules, Captain Beleron noticed that the parasite warships were currently slightly ahead and to port of his fleet, but in hyperspace. He began plotting a route, to use their hyperdrives to get ahead, open jump points to get ahead of the parasites, then attack and annihilate them.  
  
After that, the heavy assault fleet would be annihilated in deep space as they traveled between two jump gates. To prevent any vessels from getting away, the Star Destroyer would hyper in, while the World Devastators would remain in redspace (his term for the local hyperspace). If the target vessels wanted to stay and fight, he would destroy them. If they tried to run away, the World Devastators would consume them. Either way, those vessels would die.  
  
***  
  
Fleet Captain Valah'to looked over his formation. There were fifteen heavy cruisers arrayed to attack the Mentab colony, but his orders had been a bit confusing. He was to only send in a frigate first, and when it reported all clear he would send the rest of the fleet in. He did not understand what those orders were about, but he was to wait here near the jump gate for the next half hour. After that he would follow his orders to send the frigate.  
  
He watched the minutes pass by slowly, wondering what was going on that would need him to wait the few minutes extra.  
  
***  
  
The vessels poured through space, heading to their target. They did not know why they were to attack this site, or why they should only attack what was above it but not on it, but they did what they were told, and they did it well. There were six of them, and they could annihilate anything in their path. One or two might get injured, but they would destroy whatever tried to harm them.  
  
Suddenly a new type of ship appeared in their path. It was a massive triangular design, with no resemblance to anything seen before by them. They only had time to wonder what it was before the turbolaser bolts crashed into them, destroying all six with a single volley.  
  
***  
  
Captain Beleron watched in satisfaction as the World Devastators formed up on his ship for their transit to the next target zone. His sensor crew had managed to get locks on all six of them, and he had accelerated towards them quickly and fired bolts from his heavy turbolasers. The blasts had vaporized the six ships almost instantly, and there was nothing left in the area to show that the parasites had even been here.  
  
Arriving at the redspace coordinates for the next target zone, he had the Violence and one World Devastator open up a jump point far from their real space target. They would hyper in, and use the ion cannons as before, disabling vessels to prevent any escape. If any did try to escape, the other World Devastator would be waiting in redspace for them.  
  
***  
  
Fleet Captain Valah'to sighed as he gave the order for the frigate to go out. The little vessel sent the code to the jump gate, and moved through it. Its sensors were designed for long-range scanning, and the World Devastator was just close enough for the little vessel to detect its bulk moving in. Ordering a quick 180, the Captain of that vessel sent the codes that would trigger the jump gate to open again, trying to get through before it was spotted.  
  
The World Devastator crew was expecting trouble though, and had begun firing even before the little craft had turned around. Unfortunately, most of the shots missed, and only a couple bolts set to detonate came anywhere close to the frigate. Even so, those bolts melted several hundred square feet of its skin, and the frigate was already leaking atmosphere as it came back through the jump gate, screaming for help.  
  
Fleet Captain Valah'to saw the frigate burst back through, and gasped at the damage that had been delivered to it within the short time frame. It was obvious this rendezvous was a trap, and he began powering up the transmitters to send a message back home. An aide warned of another contact, and he looked at the screen, gasping when the two ships showed up.  
  
***  
  
Captain Beleron smiled at the ships in front of him. They had been alerted at the danger from the Frigate coming through the jump gate, but his Star Destroyer and the World Devastator had attacked from the opposite side. By this time the Devastator in redspace had already launched its drone fighters, ensuring that if any ship tried to escape into hyperspace it would be pounced upon and destroyed. His own fighter pilots had not been getting enough action recently; so he sent them in, with orders to cripple the engines, then enjoy target practice.  
  
***  
  
Valah'to watched as the fighters ripped through his formation, and his ships' codes began to change. Their weapons were still intact, but all of them had taken engine damage, and some had lost way completely. It was astounding, the way the fighters simply aimed at parts of his ships, yet the damage was enough to punch through his heavy armor and damage the engines below. He began barking out orders, getting his ships into a defensive huddle, trying to coordinate enough ships to get a hedgehog formation set up so these strange fighters wouldn't rip his ships apart. Slowly a sphere began to form out of the remnants, and the strange fighters began to settle for picking off the stragglers outside, but being a little more cautious about the sphere formation he had ordered.  
  
The other Captains were pressing him to order a retreat, and some were insisting that if they could get away into hyperspace they could get away from these nightmare vessels, but he overruled them. The other ship seen in hyperspace was undoubtedly waiting for them there, and if they tried to transit, it would destroy each vessel in turn. The only chance they had was if his ship could fire up the transmitters, and send a message to homeworld, telling them to warn off the transports before they went on to their target.  
  
***  
  
Captain Beleron saw the report on the power build-up in one of the vessels, and compared it to the previous comm interceptions. This vessel seemed to be a command ship, and the person over there would be attempting to get a message off, warning his superiors about what was going on, or even providing a visual of what had happened. He couldn't allow that, and he ordered all fighters to destroy that vessel.  
  
***  
  
Valah'to was watching the transmitter reach the power needed when a gasp made him turn. He too paled, as all the fighters had turned around and were headed for his ship. "By Drushalla," he said, as they opened fire upon him. The other ships were taking advantage of the respite to open fire on their own, and a few fighters seemed to spiral off as they were hit, but the remaining fighters bored straight in, and his world vanished in a wave of searing flame, as his ship was vaporized around him.  
  
The other captains saw what had happened, and they began fleeing, those that could opening up jump points to get out of there, while the others simply accelerated as fast as possible, trying to get as far from the killing region as possible. That was what the fighters had been waiting for, and only two ships managed to make it through their jump points, and the drone fighters that had been deployed in hyperspace earlier killed them.  
  
The two World Devastators continued their orders, and slowly consumed the remains of the destroyed vessels, making sure nothing remained of the once-proud task force. They took half an hour to do this, as the time required scanning for the pieces and traveling to them was very annoying. But at the end, their job was complete, and all three vessels returned to the Fetoro system, waiting to get their next orders, and hopefully see the results of their interference.  
  
***  
  
The initial reports slowly started coming in to Babylon 5 as well, and the command staff began relaxing slightly, as two of the races that had been at war with each other offered peace. From a private perspective, those races that had been at war were Shadow backed, so this was probably causing a fit with the Shadows, as they seemed to want the races to fight each other.  
  
A second source of reports began to come in though, from the Ranger agents within the Brakiri, Drazi, and Abbai governments. All of these reports contained additional data, and the 7R groups began to read these with growing horror. Fleets vanishing, defenses vanishing, and millions of tons of supplies vanishing were not something that could be easily explained away.  
  
It was at one of these meetings that Draal made an appearance.  
  
"I know what the reports say Delenn, but it still doesn't seem possible. Over three million tons of supplies simply vanished into thin air in less than two days? The Llort don't have that kind of transport capability, even if they used every ship in their fleet. The Shadows wouldn't have done this, as they and the Abbai are allies."  
  
"True Susan, but the fact remains that the fleets are gone, along with defending forces, the supplies, and most of a mountain as well. It staggers the mind to even try to conceive of what would be required to dig out the material. It would have been easier to simply launch shuttles from the ship and transfer the supplies that way. It would have required less energy, and in case they were interrupted the shuttles could easily launch with the supplies and scatter through the jump gate to avoid capture. But this wasn't a mere raid; it was designed for terror as much as resource gathering."  
  
"That most certainly is true, and what did it frightens me as well," came from a booming voice.  
  
Everyone in the room looked up as a yellow glow formed in the room, and Draal appeared.  
  
"I was watching the base during a calm period, and I was able to watch the entire engagement as it happened. I will show it to you now, so you may know exactly what happened."  
  
With that, Draal disappeared, and a hologram of the Abbai base appeared in his place. They heard his voice explaining what was going on.  
  
"The base is sitting here, complacent, knowing that there is nothing that can strike them without any warning. Unfortunately, they are wrong." Two ships suddenly burst in, a large triangular ship, and a rectangular ship. Their weapons begin firing at the various Abbai ships, and over half of them are crippled in the first salvo. Several gasps are heard throughout the room as readings indicate the power level and characteristics of each bolt.  
  
"The fighters try to engage, except for one group that is either scared or smart. That group decides to run away." Fighters are seen swarming over the two vessels, firing their weapons desperately in an attempt to damage them. No effect is seen, and they are steadily removed from existence. The group that tried to run away is annihilated while this is going on by a group of fighters.  
  
"Hold a moment," says Garibaldi. "Focus in on the fighters." The view pauses for a moment, then shows a close-up of the fighters. The triangular wing system was recognizable easily to everyone there, as they had seen it before.  
  
"In Valen's name, what are those ships?"  
  
"Delenn, I think we all would like to know what those ships are, and who they serve."  
  
"Unfortunately Sheridan, as you will see later, these people don't seem to serve anyone but themselves. But you've seen their ships' firepower. Also, look at the weapons firing. The only weapons firing seem to be ion weapons, not the other weapons that fire plasma packets. Besides, these ships aren't what frightens me. Watch what happens after the defenders are defeated."  
  
The people there watched as the rectangular ship begins to move towards the crippled ships, and another forms a jump point and popped in as well. A gasp was heard as Susan realized the second ship was there to make sure that if a ship entered hyperspace, that vessel would have been attacked. Normally, if you could retreat into hyperspace, you could return to a base for repairs. These beings seemed to have an attitude of when you fight, you fight to the end. But their horror increased as they watched the World Devastator go into action. They knew how much each of those vessels massed, and watching them slowly disappear into the maw of the ship caused their blood to freeze in their veins.  
  
The view shifted to the ground, and the ground defenses were observed firing at the rectangular ship, but slowly silenced by the ion bolts, then vacuumed up by the ship. After consuming all the ground defenses, the fighters, their hangers, and the base, the ship moved over the supply base, and it began to consume the mountain above. The second ship came down a few minutes later, and they began to circle the mountain, consuming the granite above the mountain to get to the supplies below. After a few minutes, the supply base was within view, and the vessels were consuming the fuel canisters, munitions, food, and other items of war as they continued their dance.  
  
When the show finished, everyone in the room was quiet. They had just watched the death of a hundred thousand Abbai troops whose only crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Even worse was the way it had been done, with an overwhelming strike to remove any possible communications attempts, then a casual consumption of everything that was remotely useful. A multi-billion-credit base had been consumed the way a person would sit down to a meal, and there was nothing left of it anywhere.  
  
"The other thing I wanted to show you is this." With that, Draal shifted view to show six Shadow cruisers heading towards a Mentab colony. They watched as the triangular ship and one triangular ship suddenly popped in and vaporized all six vessels. Gasps of shock were heard throughout the room as that happened. "As you can see, the main weapons on those warships are quite impressive, both in accuracy, and in sheer firepower. What happens next is quite interesting, to say the least."  
  
The view changed again, showing a massive Brakiri fleet readying for attack. "What the Brakiri military intended was to have the Shadows clear out the dangerous stuff, their assault fleet would come in to deal with the ground defenses, and their troop transports to come in afterwards. As you can see, they already have a problem with the first part. The second part will be having trouble as well.  
  
Even as he said that, the team watched a single frigate pop through the jumpgate, and get fired upon by the World Devastator. It barely managed to get back through the gate again, and most of its hull was showing serious damage. The reaction from the rest of the Brakiri fleet was immediate. The ships began to turn around, pointing their weapons in different directions, trying to shoot before they were shot.  
  
But their preparations were in vain, as the two large ships popped in again, and began launching fighters. The fighters' triangular signatures were familiar to all, and they watched in horror as the fighters massacred the ships, which were firing their weapons desperately in order to try and survive a little longer. Suddenly, all the fighters concentrated on a single ship, and vaporized it with their weapons. The remaining ships suddenly scattered, trying to get to safety before they were destroyed. But it all ended uselessly, as each ship was hunted down and destroyed. The rectangular ships performed their dance again, consuming the pieces of the ships that were left.  
  
When it was finished, Draal appeared again, and spoke. "There is one thing that is even worse than what you saw. The distance between the sites is two hundred light years, yet they were attacked within two days of each other. Even assuming if the ships headed straight between the two sites, that is still traveling at around one hundred light years per day, or over 35,000 times the speed of light. We know that Epsilon is a little over ten light years from Earth, and that a normal freighter takes two weeks to arrive. These ships traveled around ten times as far, in less than a tenth the time. I am sure you can imagine what that sort of speed gives them in the way of strategic capability. Not only that, but also those weapons are powerful enough that I am not certain I could stop them, if they decided to attack. Babylon 5 wouldn't be more than a mosquito to them if they decided to attack.  
  
"The only good news out of this is that both the Abbai and the Brakiri were allied with the Shadows, while the Llort and the Mentab weren't. Not only that, but the destruction of six Shadow vessels will lessen the odds when you have to fight them eventually. Of course, if these newcomers get too dangerous or overwhelming, we may need everyone's help, including the Shadows to even have a chance at fighting them. I am not saying we will win, but we might be able to knock out one or more of their ships."  
  
Marcus piped up at this comment. "One thing we haven't considered yet. How about if we try to ally with these beings?" Waiting for the shouting to go down, and ignoring various comments about where his head was probably located, Marcus continued. "We've seen these vessels in two key modes; defending their territory at Mandelin 4, and attacking Shadow vessels, or vessels of those allied to the Shadows. These beings seem to despise the Shadows as much as we do, but are far more capable of stopping them. Also, think about the speed of those ships; they covered two hundred light years in two days, assuming they took a direct path between the two battle sites. Imagine what that could do for transportation purposes! If every government had a single shuttle capable of those speeds, then they could easily send messages and people quickly from one empire to another.  
  
Garibaldi piped up for a moment, "A few days ago there was a hacking attempt on the computers here. It turned out that a Raider group had managed to acquire a jump-capable ship, and was raiding freighters. However, on its third mission, it didn't return. There was no debris found either, so I assumed that either nothing had happened there, or the story took place somewhere else. But from what it looks like here, the story could have happened, with one of those giant vacuum cleaners simply sucking up all the pieces. I think we better pay close attention to any more stories we get about disappearing ships, as these characters are probably involved. In fact, given the way the Centauri are probably allied with the Shadows, they might be next."  
  
***  
  
He did not know how right he was.  
  
***  
  
For the Imperial fleet had heard about the Narn-Centauri war, and had decided to start whittling down Centauri forces nearby. They would cut off the supplies going to Narn, along with any fresh warships. Any vessels leaving would be allowed, but any vessels heading towards Narn would disappear. Captain Beleron was ordered to return to the base, as his crews had gotten the most action recently, and Captains Morgren and Vestor would be taking over the duties of the interception. Captain Vestor was the replacement for Captain Velholm on the Agatrix, so Captain Morgren was the senior of the two. Two of the World Devastators were also detached to consume any vessels that were attacked.  
  
They decided the first order of business would be to reduce the number of defending warships around Narn space, and they divided up the area. They also selected a number of different tactics to use, to make it look like a large number of attackers were operating, instead of only two ships. Finally, they began to deploy probe droids near certain jump gates, with orders to send a pulse when ships came through the jump gates. They were not to transmit when ships came from deep space, to prevent themselves from being spotted, and because the ships coming in that way would be leaving Narn space, and were not the proper targets.  
  
It took them several hours to get the probe droids to the proper locations, and they began to wait in their web, waiting to see what vessels first appeared in their trap. A few freighters came by, but they were waiting for big game, and they wanted warships.  
  
They finally got their desire. Two attack cruisers were patrolling a region, apparently hunting for any renegade Narn warships. They were in the Agatrix's territory, and Captain Vestor jumped to near them, to see what else might be nearby to prevent being spotted. Seeing nothing that might concern him, he launched fighters, with orders to destroy both vessels.  
  
***  
  
Captain Felas reclined as he sipped the brevari with his meal. The wine went down well, and he enjoyed the flavor almost as much as he enjoyed his command. The attack cruiser was one of the fastest and most versatile vessels in the Centauri Navy, both highly maneuverable, and heavily armed. Others might want an Octurian battlecruiser for sheer firepower, but he preferred the grace and agility of the cruiser, using it as a fencing master would use the blade to maneuver around his opponent to weaken them before delivering the killing blow. His latest assignment was not quite enough to dampen his mood, but hunting Narn renegades would be an excellent way to get his crew into proper shape before heading out against the other races that they were at war with. Idly he glanced out the window to the rear of the ship, and watched the stars recede. Idly he looked at the colors, naming them by their types; red dwarfs, blue supergiants, white stars, green-  
  
Wait, he didn't know any stars that were green. Not only that, but these stars appeared to be getting closer-  
  
***  
  
The turbolaser bolts slammed into the rears of the two ships, crippling their engines, and causing the blades along the rear to actually separate from the ships. Damage control alarms screamed, and crewmembers throughout the ships scrambled to their stations, reacting as they had been trained despite the shudders running through the ship.  
  
***  
  
The fighters came back around for another pass, and the crewmembers barely had time to scream as they were fired upon and destroyed by the vessels. They never knew who had done it, but the only group that they could think of at that moment was Narns.  
  
***  
  
Captain Vestor smiled as the fighters returned safely to the hangar. With the level of superiority they enjoyed over local forces, it was getting to almost be a game against the local ships. Several Senior Flight Leaders were actually giving demerits if the pilots came back with less than 100% accuracy records, as measured by their gun cameras. Of course, the excuse of the target already being destroyed was getting more and more common, but the point was being made. Since they didn't have any opponents of their own caliber to fight against, they had to maintain higher standards against opponents that did exist.  
  
Vestor began to make proposals for when he returned, with more training flights between the fighter squadrons to keep his people sharp. If they could practice against fellow imperial pilots, that would work far better to keep their skills sharp and accuracy high than mere target practice against the local vessels and fighters.  
  
Over the next few days, the two Star Destroyers racked up an impressive list of kills, with several parasites detected and destroyed, along with eight battlecruisers, and twenty attack cruisers destroyed. The number of fighters destroyed was well over two hundred, as the count wasn't exact due to some of the ships having less than full fighter loads when they were destroyed.  
  
After the first three days, it was obvious that their presence had caused a reaction, because the two of them had worked together to devastate a small fleet of six battlecruisers, and twelve attack cruisers, which had over fifty fighters flying patrols around it. They had managed the task by catching the force between two jump gates, and hypering into the middle of the formation. They had commenced heavy jamming and opened fire in every direction, destroying over half the vessels in the opening salvo. As the sensors began to track the remaining vessels, the guns were salvoed, and the last ships were destroyed. There had been a few fighters who had pleaded for surrender, but the policy of 'no witnesses, no evidence' required that they too be consumed by the World Devastator.  
  
Listening ships began to report greater numbers of riots breaking out on Narn, and the Centauri garrison was calling for more supplies to put the Narn back in their place. Various replies were received, but the general message being sent was that their supply ships were having trouble getting through due to Narn rebels destroying the ships. The Imperials knew exactly why the supplies weren't getting through, and they chuckled at the amount of turnover the Centauri Royal Court must be going through right now. Not to mention the amount of stress the Centauri troops on Narn must be going through, with the lack of supplies starting to take effect, as food, replacement parts, and other items getting into short supply.  
  
It was obvious that something very selective was going on in the region surrounding Narn, as the Imperial forces had let ships out of the selected space, and even transport ships that were only one quarter full were being allowed in as well. But any warships, or transport ships more than a quarter full, were simply disappearing in space. There had even been an attempt by a few parasites to get through, but they had been annihilated as well.  
  
***  
  
Lord Refa paced in his quarters. He had been demanding regular reports from the Minister of War about the situation around Narn, and the recent reports were getting far worse. Two weeks ago, the occupation and cleansing of Narn was going on schedule, when suddenly ships began disappearing. He had figured it had been renegade Narn warships, and had dispatched several battlecruisers to deal with them. When the battlecruisers had disappeared as well, he had ordered the formation of a large fleet to hunt down the renegades. It had stripped several ships from the borders of the other races they were at war with, causing them to slow down their campaign until the fleet's return.  
  
A knock at the door caught his attention. Telling the person to enter, he received the message. Reading quickly, his eyes grew wider, as the paper listed the loss of contact with the large fleet, and the pattern observed so far in the disappearances. Thinking quickly, he realized they would have to quadruple the number of freighters heading to Narn in order to keep the garrison supplied, and that was assuming that the ships with 1/4 full holds didn't start disappearing.  
  
Moving over to an aide, he began organizing a few transports to carry critical supplies to the garrison on Narn. He knew that ships with full loads would not get through, based on the pattern, so he was allocating the supplies among five transports, and each was only twenty percent full. Hopefully, those ships would get through. They needed to.  
  
Thinking further, he added another set of orders. Narns that were deemed too dangerous to stay on their homeworld would be shipped off-planet. This would ease two problems. First, the garrison on-planet would have an easier time, and second, it would move cheap labor to worlds that needed it in Centauri space.  
  
***  
  
At the next Imperial update, Governor Velholm received the latest campaign from Emperor Solo. With the news about their fleet being stuck on the other side of a wormhole, the Senate chamber had gone in an uproar. There had been some who had proclaimed that adventurism shouldn't be attempted any more, others who wanted to demand further investigations into military activities, but Emperor Solo had silenced them.  
  
He had simply asked them, "Are you willing to leave them out there? We have learned so much in our history, how to travel across the galaxy in less than a week, how to open and stabilize wormholes, among many things. Why can't we use our knowledge to bring our warriors home?"  
  
The other delegates had been quiet at the questions, but others had seized upon the idea. Some of them had an interest in the research budgets that would get enhanced by the project, but others had respected the simple idea of bringing their lost warriors home, to their families and loved ones.  
  
As a result, the Senate had managed to come together not because of fear, but because of desire. The planets and systems in the galaxy were slowly dropping their barriers, each cooperating with the others to avoid duplicating research in an attempt to get the wormhole open. The systems that had strongly preferred their own individuality were starting to be frowned upon, and others that had been crying for greater communications between planets were being hailed as visionaries.  
  
Captain Velholm would have applauded the effort because it stemmed from loyalty to comrades in arms, but Governor Velholm saw another side to it. Emperor Solo had managed to get an idea into the senators' heads that they could accept in order to create a centralized government. He was using the separation of the forces in order to unify the galaxy, and this method was working far better than fear ever had, because the different races were wanting to help, instead of being told to cooperate.  
  
Teleso had also received a message, including a large chunk of data, and she had retired to her quarters to review the data. She was sure this data was based on her request for extra knowledge from the new Force archives. Since most of the old holocrons had been destroyed during the civil war, the new Force warriors were busy experimenting, and learning as much as they could. The original Jedi class, with Luke Skywalker and the other senior Jedis were teaching at the Academy. At first they had been horrified at the thought of teaching Sith techniques to the pupils, but Anakin had told Luke that if he wanted to make sure the pupils used the Force properly, then the best way would be to become a teacher as well.  
  
Other Imperial personnel received letters from home and family, and they related what they were doing in the new galaxy. Of course, due to their location and activities, Imperial censor programs advised them how to edit their transmissions, but the letters stayed mostly intact. 


End file.
